Chains of Crystal
by Higuchimon
Summary: [30/30 chapters, complete, Fubuki x Otogi/Otogi x Fubuki, Glamorshipping, au: djinn, divergent timeline: GX season 1] An enslaved djinn washes up on Academy Island and into the heart of the Wizard of Love.
1. Enslavement

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Enslavement  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX.  
**Author's Notes:** This was my Nanowrimo 2007 project. The story itself is complete, and I will post up a new chapter every Saturday and Wednesday until I have posted them all.  
**AU Info:** Frankly, if I started to tell you everything, you wouldn't need to read the fanfic. Just take it as a given that it is effectively season 1 of GX. Fubuki is seventeen and in his third year, as is Ryou. Otogi's age is irrelevant, for all intents and purposes, as he is a djinn in this AU. Manjoume, Asuka, Shou, and Juudai are fifteen and in their first year. Hayato is sixteen and is repeating his first year. Some events have not yet happened (the Seven Stars, for one thing) but some have (Manjoume running away to North School, finding Ojama Yellow, returning, dueling his brother for the school and having the other Ojamas) have. I believe everything else you will find out as you read the fanfic. I hope you enjoy._

Otogi Ryuuji shivered. It wasn't out of fear, though a small thin line of it surged back and forth through him. It was from the chill of the wizard's work room and the cold iron chains that bound him to the wall. Cold iron: one of the few substances that could bind a djinn against his will, and that he could not use his powers on. 

He stared across the room towards the wizard as the other worked on something that he couldn't see. If he had had access to all of his ablities at the moment, he would have turned the mage into something small and repulsive, such as a roach. Anything would have done, as long as it would have led to his freedom. 

Instead, he was forced to watch and wait to find out what was going on. Though he thought he had an idea. It was something that most mortals tried to do if they were so lucky to get hold of one of his kind. 

_He'll regret it._ Otogi wasn't certain of how he would make certain this would happen, but he _would_. This mage, this wizard, this _beast_ was going to pay enough of a price just for holding him like this. If anything more was done, then the price would just get higher and higher. It was already going to be too expensive of a bill. 

The wizard turned around and smirked a hideous smirk at Otogi. "Are you certain you don't want to reconsider my offer, Otogi? You could be very powerful if you do." 

"Even if I wanted your kind of power, I wouldn't take it from you. And I have all the power that I _do_ want." Otogi spat the words out at him and yanked again at the restraints. He wanted to be far from here, far away from where this bastard could do any harm to him. 

The wizard came closer to the djinn, each step made with unnatural perfection. Otogi was revolted the closer he got. He could feel the kind of magic the other had: the power of blood and death, power stolen from others over the course of centuries. He wanted to throw up. 

Once he drew close enough, the wizard reached out and lifted Otogi's chin with one finger. "If you won't work for me because you want to, then you'll work for me because I'll make you." 

"That's the only way that you'll get any of my power," Otogi retorted, green eyes flaring angrily. The wizard appeared to take no notice. 

"I suspected as much." The wizard held one hand out behind himself, and a flawless crystal flew across from where he'd been to land there. "I'd hoped that you would see things my way, but since it appears you'd rather be foolish, I've already made plans." 

Otogi rolled his eyes. This guy was more over the top than _Pegasus_! He hadn't thought that was even possible. "Whatever you're going to do, go ahead and do it. I'm bored." He didn't betray that nervousness that grew thicker and thicker with every moment. He would _not_ let this beast know about that. 

The wizard brought the crystal around. It was transparent, the most perfect and flawless crystal that Otogi had ever seen. He swallowed briefly; for all of the crystalline beauty there, it radiated the most intense evil he could imagine. 

"Say hello to your new home," the wizard purred. "And know this: so long as you are imprisoned within, you will belong completely to the person who owns it. You will obey their commands and grant any wish that they so desire, for so long as it remains in their possession." 

Being bound to something like that wasn't exactly new to those of the race of the djinn. It wasn't something they looked forward to or expected to have happen to them, but it was a possibility nontheless. Otogi wanted to strangle someone. Preferably the far too pretty mage in front of him. 

The wizard began to chant something in a language that Otogi didn't recognize, and after the first half-dozen words or so, the crystal turned a deep shade of smoky black. Otogi tried to turn away or close his eyes, but his attention was drawn to it regardless. He thought he'd seen a flaw within it, and against all reason, he wanted to see more. He could still hear the chanting, somewhere in the background, but it failed to mean anything to him now. Instead, all of his attention was taken up by this crystal. 

Said crystal was changing colors once again, and he thought the mage was bringing it closer to him. Or perhaps he was drawing closer to it. He wasn't sure of his own being anymore. Everything was fluid, except his focus on the crystal and the crystal itself. 

There was a shriek, a sharp piercing howl of pain, from somewhere even beyond the words that he couldn't understand, and then he was somewhere else. He wasn't in the mage's workshop anymore. He looked around, confused. Where was he? What had happened? For a moment, Otogi had no more memory of knowledge of who he was and what had happened than a child would have. 

But when the moment had passed, everything flowed back into him, and he swore for two minutes straight without repeating himself. That _damned_ wizard! Trapped! Trapped and _enslaved_ and not able to break out! No djinn could ever break the bindings placed like this. Their power simply did not extend to that. 

He slammed his fists against the crystal walls around him, swearing even more. If only he hadn't been so stupid! If only he'd _listened_ to everyone else, just once… 

Now he suspected he'd never see them again. All of his friends…gone. 

He had known anyway that he would outlive most of them, being what he was, since they were mortal. But he wanted to see them grow up anyway, to see what happened with their lives, and how much they accomplished. He had wanted to _be there_ for them, for all of them. 

And instead, he was in here, where the only slim chance he had would be if this crystal were somehow stolen and brought to his friends. He didn't think that would happen. It would make him happy, and the wizard had gone out of his way to make certain he _wasn't_ happy. 

Any second now, the bastard would call him forth and command him to do who knew what. Otogi's powers weren't quite infinite, as he was still under a hundred years old himself, but they were more than impressive enough to bring the kingdom itself to it's knees. _Atemu…_ He didn't want to do that to his friend. 

Minutes passed. They could've been hours or days or even weeks. Time here didn't _feel_ like time had outside of it. Maybe that was so the djinn inside wouldn't go too crazy. 

Not that Otogi really cared about going crazy. He already wanted to murder the mage. 

At least inside it was kind of comfortable, with cushions scattered at least two feet deep. A few tests proved he had limited access to his powers, so he could keep himself fed if he wanted to. But he couldn't communicate with the outside at all. He was in his own little world, all but literally. 

After prowling around for what he surmised was something like half an hour, Otogi settled himself on a cushion, choosing one that matched his eyes just for his own personal amusement, and relaxed. Maybe the wizard was going to wait a few weeks or months before he called him out, to see if he'd be more tractable than he'd been before going into the crystal. Even though he'd be forced to obey him now, the mage would probably want him to do it 'willingly'. 

Yeah. As if that was ever going to happen. Willingly obey the person who had hunted and hounded him for two years before finally capturing him and binding him with _cold iron_, of all things? If they'd just been mage-bindings, there might have been that infintimesal chance. But cold iron burned and froze at the same time. Otogi glanced briefly down at his wrists, and was not surprised to see the faintest hints of the markings still. They would likely be there his entire life, no matter how many eons that lasted. 

Moment by moment, time crept by. Otogi stared at the crystal walls around him until he could stand seeing them no more. He couldn't see through them, he could only see _to_ them, and he could hear nothing outside. If the crystal was being moved, he couldn't feel that either. 

_Atemu. Yuugi. Anzu. Honda. Jounouchi. Bakura. Ryou. Mai. Shizuka._ All people he would never see again. At least not as they had been. Yuugi and Atemu had been the only ones to know his secret. He'd trusted them that much, and they had trusted him, after everything that had introduced them to each other. 

His fists clenched against the softness of a pillow, and he slammed it hard against the others, his frustration building and building without any outlet at all. He couldn't even satisfactorily break something. All he could make in here was food, and even the dishes it appeared on wouldn't break. 

It was all his fault. The mage. The wizard. The one who had put him in here in the first place. 

All his fault. He would pay for it. Otogi knew he'd promised this to himself before, but now he swore it all over again. No matter how long it took he would find a way to get his revenge. His eyes flashed brilliant emerald sparks as he began to fantasize about just what he'd do when he had the chance. There was a way to break this binding, he just didn't happen to know what it was or be capable of it himself. 

But there were always other ways. There were other people out there, and he didn't think this mage was liked all that much by anyone else he knew either. Perhaps one of his friends could be lucky enough to free him. Ryou was studying to be a wizard himself after all, a _good_ wizard, not one that stole his power from everything and everyone else that he possibly could. He might know a way. For that matter, Bakura might help as well. Who knew when a thief's talents might come in handy? Otogi could only hope at the moment. 

So that was what he did. He laid back on the cushions and fought to keep his temper from flaring, no matter how much he really wanted it to. There would be a time and a place for it, and he would unleash it with all of his power when that time and place came. That wizard would learn what it was like to cross one of the djinn. He might not be high-ranking, but he was still a djinn, and imprisoning one of those for no more reason than not serving him would have consequences. 

When the mage called only Darkness came back into the reach of his hands, he would show no mercy. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	2. Release

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Release  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"Why not?" Fubuki was an expert pouter, and he pouted expertly at his sister as she sorted through her cards. "He's not that bad of a guy." 

"I know." Asuka paid only the minimum attention necessary to her older brother as she worked through the cards spread before her. "I'm not interested." 

Fubuki could also whine like a professional. "You might be if you went out with him! Just once. I'm not asking you to marry him. _He's_ not asking you to marry you! Just a little walk on the beach. What could it hurt?" 

"You, if you don't stop asking me." Asuka replied calmly, picking through her monster cards. She had an important duel the next day, and she wanted to be certain everything was ready for it. "If you're all that eager to get someone to go out with Manjoume, why don't you do it?" 

Fubuki considered that for a moment. It wasn't really that bad of an idea. Manjoume was good looking, a little rough around the edges, but he had a very good heart, that he kept trying to hide the best that he could. "Maybe I will." He flashed one of his best grins at his sister. "So don't say I didn't give you a chance if you change your mind later. 

Asuka just shook her head as she kept on looking through the cards. Would this one be a better choice for a support card? Or maybe… "Don't worry, I won't." 

Fubuki would've laughed if he didn't know, deep inside, how much dueling really meant to his sister. But even a duelist couldn't live by cards alone! That was one of the reasons he kept trying his best to see if he could at least get her to try a date with someone. He always waited for some guy to show an interest in Asuka before he asked her, though. He knew _she_ wasn't interested, so he had to wait for the other side of the equation. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. 

He reminded himself to be there at her duel the next day. She had plenty of support from all their friends, and there was no way that Manjoume would have missed a duel of hers regardless, but this was his sister dueling, and he would _be there_ no matter what. 

"Well, I'm going to go talk to him about it." Fubuki pushed himself to his feet and brushed his hair back some. He was going back out in public, after all, and he preferred to look his best. It was for the good of everyone seeing him. They deserved to see him at his finest at all times. 

"You have fun." Asuka weighed two spells cards carefully. "If you two wind up needing it, you've got my blessing." She'd long since stopped being concerned over Fubuki. He was a big boy. He could and would date anything or anyone that said yes to him. Misawa had a chart somewhere of all the available people on the island, and how many of them Fubuki had dated. It was impressive. 

Fubuki flashed her another grin. "When don't I have fun?" He sauntered out, closing the door behind himself as he did. Fun was what Fubuki did. He could have fun doing almost anything, and usually did. 

Now the next step was to find Manjoume and see if he were averse to taking a walk on the beach with him instead of his sister. He had never really thought that much about if Manjoume were possibly interested in guys or not. For that matter, Manjoume hadn't really expressed an interest in anyone but Asuka for as long as Fubuki had known him. In Fubuki's mind, that meant the possibility existed. Every answer was a yes until a no was expressed, and even then negogiations were possible. 

He kind of doubted that Manjoume would be at the Osiris dorms. Even if that's what he technically was, he wasn't going to hang out there any more than he really had to. He needed space, after all. That meant the most likely place at the moment was probably the beach, which suited Fubuki himself right down to the ground. Water was his favorite element to be near if he had a choice in the matter. 

So he wandered down that way, searching for the familiar black-clad, black-haired figure. It didn't take very long before he'd found him, since Manjoume knew perfectly well that Fubuki had went to try to persuade Asuka to go out with him. 

"Well? What did she say? When is she going to meet me?" Eagerness lit his gray eyes, and Fubuki wished he had better news for him. Though it wasn't as if he himself were that bad of a catch. 

But that kind of depended on Manjoume, and he had to get through this first. "She's busy right now." Fubuki told him. "But she did suggest that maybe you and I could do something." Of all the many ways to describe Fubuki, shy definitly wasn't one of them. 

Manjoume blinked a few times in an attempt to process this. The thought of dating a guy had never actually crossed his mind. On the one hand, Asuka was probably the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in his life, and the sweetest, kindest, and every other description one could think of, and several that one could not. On the other hand, if he did date a guy, even just a simple walk on the beach that never went anywhere beyond that, and it got back to his brothers, they'd probably be furious and hate him even more than they already did. 

That, above everything else, decided it for him. "Sure, why not. Maybe that'll help change her mind." 

"That's just what I was thinking!" Fubuki declared. "So, did you want to wait until after dinner or go ahead and have it now?" He was very flexible when it came to such things. There were many people around the school who would have agreed with that: most of them after a date with him. 

Manjoume considered thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Why not now?" The weather was pretty good for late fall, and most of the students would be away from the beach and studying now anyway. As much as it wouldn't bother him to let people see and possibly get word back to his brothers, he also preferred some form of privacy. Given the condition of his deck, that wasn't something he could get that often. 

"Hey, big brother!" A squeaky little voice proved that true less than a heartbeat later. A small yellow _thing_ popped out of his deck and hovered over one shoulder. "I thought you were going to be dating that Asuka girl! What happened?" 

Manjoume growled to himself; he usually tried to pretend the Ojama brothers and the rest of the spirits that lived in his deck weren't there, especially when he was around other people who couldn't see them. Since at the moment the only other person on the island who _could_ see them was Juudai, and he wasn't there, that made this moment a little awkward. 

"Get out!" he hissed as he and Fubuki started towards the beach. "Leave me alone!" 

"Manjoume? You all right?" Fubuki looked towards him, eyebrows raised a bit curiously. Manjoume managed to seize hold of Ojama Yellow and yanked him out of sight. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about a duel, that's all." Manjoume started to stuff the duel spirit back into his card when it squeaked out something else he couldn't quite hear all the way. "What was that?" he muttered, glancing down at the tiny spirit as it struggled in his hand. 

"There's something weird down at the beach!" Ojama Yellow declared. A moment later, Ojama Black and Ojama Green appeared as well, each hovering over Manjoume's shoulders. 

"Yeah, we don't know what it is, but it's _strange_! Maybe you should check it out?" Green suggested. Manjoume wished he could swat at them without looking like he'd lost his mind. Enough people already thought that from previous times he'd tried to get them to leave him alone. 

Manjoume growled to himself. "Fine. Get back in your cards and we'll go see what it is." They were already going to the beach anyway. It was probably just some kind of ugly shell that had caught their attention. Or maybe a weird card someone had thrown away. People still did that, even after everything that had happened with cards being abandoned around here. Some people just never learned. 

"Are you sure you're all right?" Fubuki had watched him a little curiously. There was something different about Manjoume, similar to something about Juudai, but Fubuki had never really known what it was. It had something to do with their cards, he knew that much. But whatever it was, it wasn't dangerous, so he'd never worried himself that much about it. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." Manjoume didn't care if he sounded all that upset. Fubuki wouldn't mind. But one day he was going to find out who it was that had 'gifted' him with the ability to see and hear duel spirits, and _hurt them_. Badly. "Let's hit the beach." 

Given that the Academy was on an island, it didn't take them very long to get there. The Ojamas hadn't exactly specified which part of the beach it was on, but Manjoume couldn't bring himself to care that much. If it were all that important, he could come and look for it later if they didn't find it. 

As it turned out, however, it wasn't that hard to find at all. Half-buried in the sand, most likely brought there by the last tides, it gleamed and sparkled in the sun. Fubuki shaded his eyes with his hand and looked at it. 

"What _is_ that?" He couldn't remember seeing anything like it before. 

"Dunno. Let's go see." Manjoume tried not to appear as if he were all that interested, but the closer he got, the more he couldn't help but wonder what it really was. It couldn't be anything that valuable, could it? Not if it were just floating around in the ocean. 

Fubuki reached it first, and he bent down to dig it up quickly. What he uncovered was a crystal, a deep shade of emerald green, round as the moon, and just small enough to fit into the palm of the hand. "Whoa. This is gorgeous!" 

Manjoume eyed it a bit distastefully. Sure, it was pretty, but it wasn't really worth the Ojamas getting excited about. Of course, they got excited when they smelled a bit of bad cheese in the kitchen, so he couldn't exactly trust their judgment. "What is it?" 

"I don't know." Fubuki picked it up and looked at it for a moment before he looked at Manjoume. "Do you want it?" He started to hold it out, and Manjoume shook his head for a moment, then frowned. 

"Well…it's not really _me_, but do you think Asuka would like it?" Maybe it would help soften her heart towards him if he gave her something this pretty. 

Fubuki started to brush the sand off of it carefully. "She might." He brushed it off more and more, his fingers rubbing against it, then stopped. "It…moved!" 

"Huh?" If Manjoume hadn't known Fubuki better, he might have thought he was joking. Or mistaken, since obviously it could've just moved because he was touching it. 

Slowly the other started to rub at it again, and this time Manjoume _saw_ it move. Then green smoke, the same shade as the crystal itself, began to boil forth from it, quickly reaching a height of nearly six feet before it resolved into the form of a young man a bit older than they were, with black hair, green eyes, and a furious expression. 

"Where is he?" The stranger asked, eyes blazing. "Where is _Darkness_?" 

**To Be Continued**


	3. Meeting

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Meeting  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Manjoume and Fubuki exchanged a look, then Fubuki looked at the person who had just blown in out of smoke. "Who?" The mention of the name sent a faint chill down his spine, though he had no idea of why. If he were being poetic, he might have called it the shadow of what might have been, or what could be. 

"Darkness! The bastard who put me in that thing to start with!" Green eyes looked this way and that, up and down the beach, then back to the two before him. "You two don't have any idea of what I'm talking about, do you?" 

"No, we don't." Manjoume snapped. "So why don't you tell us? And while you're at it, tell us how you can fit into that thing!" 

A slow grin appeared at that. "Magic, of course. What else would a djinn use?" 

"A djinn?" Fubuki stared in awe. He'd read all kinds of fairy tales and legends about magical creatures, but he'd never thought he'd actually meet one face to face. Much less one that was really this good looking. Though he supposed if he were a magical creature, he'd find a way to be gorgeous if he wasn't already. 

"Right. The name's Otogi Ryuuji. Just call me Otogi." He folded his arms and eyed them both. "What about you two?" 

"My friend here is Manjoume Jun," Fubuki spoke up quickly, motioning to Manjoume himself. "Most people just call him Manjoume, though. I'm Tenjoin Fubuki." 

"Most people just call him annoying." Manjoume put in sourly. He would have protested that there were no such things as djinn, but having just seen this person appear from nowhere, or from inside that crystal, whichever, he wasn't in the mood to argue a great deal about it. 

Otogi eyed them both, his attention lingering a bit on Fubuki before he spoke. "And you've never heard of Darkness at all, have you?" 

"Unless you count what happens when the sun goes down, no." Manjoume snapped. "So, how'd you get in there?" 

"Because of Darkness." Otogi all but growled out the name. "No one knows where he came from. He was always in the kingdom, as far as anyone has ever known. No one could get to him. His power prevented that. He took it from anyone he could. Some of the greatest sorcerers and wizards fell because of him, and he took all their power for his own." His fists clenched briefly. "But he wanted more. He always wanted more. And he found me. As djinn go, I'm young. The older a djinn is, the more powerful they are. He couldn't handle a full grown one, so he chased after me for years before he was finally able to capture me." 

Fubuki shuddered just at the thought of being chased all that time. Not that he didn't mind a good run, but this was entirely different. "What happened then?" 

"This happened." Otogi held up his wrists, where scars could be seen. "The only thing that can truly hold a djinn against his will is cold iron, and that's what he bound me with until he could get everything else that he wanted set up. That was the crystal, and the spell to bind me to it." He shot a look of raw hatred at the glimmering item still in Fubuki's hand. 

Fubuki stared down at it. "This?" 

"That." Otogi nodded. "Whoever owns it, owns me now." Distaste dripped into his voice. "That means you do, because you're the one who called me out when you rubbed it. So tell me what you want." 

"Huh?" Fubuki looked up at Otogi, down at the crystal, and back again. "I don't want anything. I didn't even know you were in there!" 

Otogi just looked at him, a hint of amusement in his voice when he spoke. "So you've got an all-powerful djinn at your command, that can grant you anything you can think of, and you don't want anything?" 

"What would I want?" Fubuki was baffled at the very thought. "I've got my sister, I've got my friends, I've got duels to duel and an awesome beach to play in. What else do I want?" 

Manjoume rolled his eyes. He could think of one or two things he'd like to have, but most of them weren't things a djinn could grant. He wanted Asuka to love him because _she_ wanted to, not because some mystical magical thing made her. And he wanted his brothers to realize he was as good as they were because it was true, not because they were forced to either. Other than that, he had all the popularity, fame, and good looks he could want. 

Otogi didn't take his eyes off of either one of them. He had no idea of how long he'd been sealed in the crystal, but things had obviously changed since the last time he'd seen the world. Two people who had someone like him at their command, and neither one of them had any kind of a wish or a desire for him to grant? Something was fishy somewhere. Or people had _really_ gotten weird while he was out of circulation. 

But he could find that out later. He still had to find Darkness, if it were possible, and work out some of those revenge plots that he'd spent most of his imprisonment thinking of. The thought that the bastard could have died or worse during his time away burned at him. If he'd lost his chance… 

One step at a time. "What is this place, anyway? I've never seen it before." He also wondered just how long he'd been in there. A bound djinn naturally spoke whatever language their master did, so that didn't bother him. It would all sound to him like his own native tongue no matter what. But the surroundings themselves were so totally unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Were they on an island? That was what it looked like. Clear blue skies overhead, waves crashing on the beach…was that a volcano he was seeing too? And a large building…no, lots of buildings, and he could hear people laughing and talking, even if he couldn't see all that many at the moment beyond the two that he was speaking with. 

"This is Academy Island," Fubuki told him, waving a hand around expansively, the motion taking in everything that they could see and what they couldn't see at the same time. "It's the home of Duel Academia. We go to school here." 

A school? "What kind of a school?" He was expecting wizards or mages or sorcerers, maybe even fighters, though neither appeared to be all that physically fit, at least not compared to the warriors he'd known. Honda or Jounouchi could've taken either of them without that much of a problem. Of course his friends had been fully grown adults, and these two looked a couple of years shy of that. They weren't children, by any means, but they weren't much older than eighteen, if that. 

"Duelists, of course!" Manjoume rolled his eyes. What kind of a question had that been. Everyone knew about Duel Academia! He couldn't comprehend someone not knowing about it. "We play Duel Monsters." 

The words meant less than nothing to Otogi. The only monsters that he knew of were the ones that Atemu's sorcerers and priests had summoned on occasion, and he hadn't paid that much attention to them, either. "You play what?" 

"Haven't you ever heard of it?" Fubuki wondered. How could someone _not_ have heard of Duel Monsters? It had been a world popular game for over ten years, if not fifteen! Maybe even twenty! How long had Otogi been locked up like that? 

Otogi shook his head at the question. "Never heard of it." 

Fubuki pulled his deck out and came closer to the djinn to show him. "This is a Duel Monsters deck." He started to explain the game, and Otogi listened, a mixture of confusion and amusement in his eyes. All of this over a game? The world _had_ changed, that was for certain. 

These two were obviously passionate about it as well. Manjoume threw in a few odds and ends about the game and other acadamies dealing with it, such as the North School where he'd acquired his black outfit, and a few muttered words that Otogi would've liked to hear more clearly. What he heard was 'Ojama', and while the word didn't mean anything to him, the combined irritation and affection that Manjoume himself didn't notice was interesting. 

"So, what are you going to do?" Manjoume finally asked when Fubuki shut up long enough for him to say something. "There's nothing that anyone needs from you here." 

Otogi just shook his head. "That doesn't make a difference. I can't go anywhere without the crystal, and I can't actually own it for myself. Until the spell is broken on it, it's either unowned, which leaves me inside of it, or it belongs to someone, and that means I go where they go." He didn't exactly sound all that happy about it, either. 

"So how can the spell be broken?" Fubuki wondered. The thought of someone being his _slave_ or his possession just revolted him. It was beyond wrong! "Do we just break the crystal?" He'd do it, no matter how pretty it was, if it meant that Otogi could be free. 

Otogi snorted and waved a finger at the crystal in Fubuki's hands. "Try it. Go ahead. That crystal is _magical_, even without me in it. I'm sure it was the most perfect one that Darkness could find. The purer the crystal, the more powerful the spell would be when he locked me in it. There's no way to destroy it, and even if there was, I don't know if that would break the spell. That's human magic, not djinn power." Human spells and djinn power worked in entirely different ways, and he had never bothered to learn just how humans worked their magic. He had scarcely even begun to learn how his own powers worked, though to a human his abilities would be beyond comprehension. 

"I wonder if Principal Sameshima would know anything about this," Fubuki mused. Sameshima always seemed to know a little something about everything. It was probably one of the reasons he'd been placed in charge around here. "Let's go ask him!" He grinned widely. "Besides, we need to figure out how to tell him that you're here anyway." 

Otogi blinked a few times. He hadn't ever been enslaved before this, but he was mildly certain that this wasn't how it was supposed to go. "You mean, you'd want someone else to know that you have someone like me?" That could get really dangerous, very quickly. 

"Sure, why not? You could be a student here, if you can pick up anything about dueling." Fubuki tilted his head thoughtfully. "You'd have to start out in Osiris Red, of course, but that wouldn't be too bad. Some of my best friends are Reds. Like Manjoume here." 

"I am not!" Manjoume snapped the words out automatically. He'd protested being one ever since he'd come back from North School, no matter what. Sure, he didn't mind in some ways, but…no one had to say it like that! 

"Then let's go see Sameshima!" Fubuki put the crystal in his pocket and looked at Otogi. "You don't mind staying around, do you?" he asked almost as an afterthought. He hoped the answer would be yes. Besides, who wouldn't want to stick around here? This was the greatest place in the entire world! 

Otogi shrugged. "I don't exactly have anywhere else to go, until I can find out what happened to Darkness. Sure. I'll stick around." Besides, he'd already told them he had to stay with whoever had the crystal. It wasn't his option. And of all the places he'd seen, this Academy Island certainly had some of the better scenery around. 

The view of the ocean wasn't bad either. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	4. Enrollment

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Enrollment  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

People stared at Otogi. There was no way to get around the fact that was what they were doing. He grinned back at them, enjoying the attention. He'd always liked having eyes on him, and finding out that his time in the crystal hadn't changed that was _very_ pleasant. He cast warm smiles everywhere he went, and was not at all disappointed to see more than a few girls, not to mention some of the guys, flushing at them. 

_I've still got it._

"Hey, guys!" A voice that he didn't recognize, which would've really shocked him more than anything else, called to them from farther up the trail they were following that led to the largest building. "Who's your friend there?" 

"Hey, Juudai!" Fubuki waved to the young man coming towards them. Otogi gave him a quick once-over and blinked slightly. To his djinn senses, the part of him that sensed and was aware of all things magical, this person all but _reeked_ of power. And Otogi was fairly certain that he didn't know it. It didn't have the taste of a power that was known and trained, not like some of his friends. Or some of his enemies, for that matter. 

Otogi stepped forward, nodding slightly towards the stranger. "The name's Otogi Ryuuji. I'm visiting here for a while. I'm not sure just how long. I could even wind up staying, if things work out." He had nothing against lying in general, but if Juudai was a friend of Fubuki and Manjoume, then he didn't want to get off to a bad start. Not to mention, who knew what kind of power that was lurking in there? Anything could set it off. 

"Otogi…" Juudai smiled a little, rubbing the back of his head. "I think I might've heard that name before…" He shrugged some and offered his hand. "It'll come to me. Nice to meet you!" 

"Nice to meet you, too." Otogi wondered just what Juudai could have meant by that. He doubted that Darkness would have spread it about too much just which djinn he'd caught, and if as much time as he _thought_ had passed had…well, he'd figure it out sooner or later. 

"So where are you guys going?" Juudai asked as he fell into step beside them, not seeming to care that they were at least marginally heading back the way that he had just come from himself. 

"Up to see Sameshima," Fubuki told him cheerfully. "We want to make some arrangements for Otogi staying here." 

"Yeah, it was kind of a surprise visit." Otogi put in. It was. Even he hadn't known he was coming here. 

Manjoume's eyes flickered between the three of them, then landed on Juudai. "You can do this without me hanging around," he said finally, starting to turn away. Then he turned back, once more looking at Juudai. "And they don't need you around either." 

"Huh?" Juudai blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?" 

"Just what I said." Manjoume grabbed Juudai by the collar. "Come on, you owe me a rematch anyway, remember?" 

"I do?" Juudai plainly had no idea of what Manjoume was talking about. "Well, if you say so!" 

Otogi watched in amusement as the two of them headed away, Juudai still evincing confusion and Manjoume just a faint hint of smugness as he started to look through his deck again. The djinn narrowed his eyes briefly. There was something of the same kind of power in Manjoume that he'd sensed in Juudai, and was that a little _creature_ following the black-clad teenager? 

"Otogi?" Fubuki tugged on his shirt some. "You all right?" 

"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine." Otogi shrugged briefly and put it aside. First he needed to get settled here, and then he needed to find out several things. _Then_ he could worry himself over what everyone else around him was doing. 

The rest of the trip up to Sameshima's office passed without much interference. A few people waved and wanted to talk to Fubuki and his strange companion, but that only made sense. On an island, there weren't that many visitors, much less people that the students didn't know, so a new face was easily recognized and talked about. Otogi suspected if there weren't already five or six rumors floating around about him, there would be before sunrise the next day. 

"And who is this?" Sameshima was a large man, but he had kind eyes and a thoughtful look about him. Otogi was reminded vaguely of Yuugi's grandfather, if only by the sense there was much more about him than met the eye. Physically they couldn't have been more different, with Sameshima being tall and broad, while Sugoroku had been short and somewhat on the pudgy side as he'd grown older. 

"Otogi Ryuuji," Otogi introduced himself yet again, bending his head slightly. "I've just arrived here through some unusual circumstances, and I might have to stay a while." 

Sameshima raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. "And what manner of circumstances might those be?" If he recognized the name, like Juudai had thought he did, he gave no outward sign of it. 

Otogi gave the question only a moment of consideration. If he asked, he should get an answer. And if he were the one in charge around here, then keeping what he was a secret might not be the best idea. So he just shrugged. "The crystal that I was trapped in washed up on the beach and your students Fubuki and Manjoume found it. Fubuki rubbed it, and out I came. A djinn in a crystal." He almost expected to be laughed at and for Sameshima to insist on the real story. 

Instead, the man only steepled his fingers in front of his face. "I trust you can prove this is something more than a prank?" 

Otogi grinned. He _liked_ proving what he was to people. The look on their faces was always worth it. A flick of his finger and a wash of emerald green sparkles, just the same shade as his own exotic eyes, transformed Sameshima's desk into a parrot. The bird fumbled with its wings briefly, then flew around the room in obvious shock. "I trust that will convince you?" 

"Yes. Indeed." Sameshima nodded ever so slightly. "If you would be so kind as to return my desk?" 

Another flick and another set of sparkles restored the desk to the way it had been. Otogi tried not to grin _too_ broadly in amusement at the shock he could just see in Sameshima's eyes. He really did love being himself. 

"What precisely are you going to be doing here?" The principal asked, his hands touching the desk slightly warily, as if he were afriad it would suddenly sprout wings and fly off again. 

"There's someone I need to find, but I don't know if they'll be here or not. Until I can find them, or find out what happened to them, I don't really have anything to do, unless Fubuki wants me to do something," Otogi said frankly. "As the owner of my crystal, he can call on my powers at any time he wants. And there's very little that I _can't_ do magically." 

Sameshima nodded briefly once more. "I see. Are you familiar with dueling as we teach it here?" 

"Only the very basics that Manjoume and Fubuki told me when we first met," Otogi replied. "I do have some interests in games, so I could try to learn it." 

The principal considered, his fingers steepled before his face once more in a thinking posture. "That would be the best way to explain your presence, as I don't believe it would be wise to let every student know about your special nature." 

"I've mentioned to a couple of people that I was just visiting and there was a chance that I would stay, but it hadn't been defined yet," Otogi put in. "If that makes any difference." 

"Perhaps. Very well, we will work with that," Sameshima nodded firmly. "You are visiting Duel Academia to determine if it's suitable for you, and you're a friend of the Tenjoin family." He glanced over at Fubuki. "You might wish to discuss this with your sister, of course." 

Fubuki nodded, his usual cheery grin plastered all over his face. "I don't think she's going to mind. And since she's got that duel tomorrow, that's a great chance to show Otogi how things work around here!" 

"Excellent." Sameshima nodded his agreement, then began to pull papers out of one of his desks. "As you obviously would not have any parents who would need to sign your enrollments forms, you'll do it for yourself. You're certainly old enough, I would imagine." 

"I'm probably older than anyone you've ever met in your life," Otogi teased, green eyes dancing with pleasure. "Even if I don't look it." 

Sameshima chuckled back at him, then gave him a firm and penetrating look. "I would sincerely advise that you keep your nature to yourself to the best of your ability. There are forces in this world that would gladly use someone such as you to their worst advantage: and to the disadvantage of everyone else." 

"I know. That was how I wound up in that crystal in the first place." Otogi's eyes flared briefly at the memory, and his wrists twinged a little at the thought of cold iron bands around them. "I don't intend to make the same kind of mistakes twice." 

The principal nodded approvingly. "Good. Now, sign here, please." He pushed the papers and a pen over towards Otogi, who read them quickly. They were easy and simple enough, an agreement to abide by the rules of Duel Academia, a quick overview of what those rules were, and that was about it. It was roughly what he would have expected from any kind of school. He signed elegantly, amused a bit that he could write in a language he'd never heard or spoken of before that day. But that was part of the magic of being a djinn, and a bound one at that. Not that he couldn't have done this if he were free, but he would have had to work for it a little. 

Once he'd signed, Sameshima leaned back in his chair and eyed the two of them thoughtfully. "Normally a student in your nominal situation, effectively 'transferring' in would be assigned to the Osiris Red dorm, until they could prove they deserved to be promoted. However, given the reality behind your arrival here, I don't think that's advisable." 

Otogi just shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I can live in the crystal until I need to be out." 

"A dorm should at least be assigned to you, for the sake of appearances if nothing more. After all, a normal student would have one." Sameshima reminded him. 

Fubuki spoke up then. "Well, until he's an actual student, he's kind of just visiting, so why not let him stay in Obelisk until then? I've got plenty of space in my room. He can share with me!" 

Sameshima tilted his head, considering that. "I suppose that could work for the moment. Even though you've signed the enrollment form, you haven't yet been tested, and the story should hold up. Very well." He nodded a little. "If you're both agreeable to it." 

Otogi glanced over at Fubuki for a moment. There was something about him that just bubbled and sparkled, a kind of joy that couldn't be quenched, no matter what. That attracted him, and he wasn't ashamed to admit it. The thought of spending even more time around him than he might normally have, thanks to the spell of binding in the crystal, was also quite pleasant. "I don't mind at all." 

"Great!" Fubuki bounced up and down in joy. "Come on, I'll show you your new room. Our room. Whatever!" 

"And don't forget to actually start teaching him how to duel. Perhaps the Kaiser would be of assistance as well." Sameshima said as the two of them started out of the office. 

"Great idea! I'll ask him!" Fubuki declared. Otogi's lips twitched a touch at the enthusiasm, but he did wonder. 

"Just who is the Kaiser?" 

**To Be Continued**


	5. Kaiser

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Kaiser  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"The Kaiser?" Fubuki scratched the back of his head, then grinned. "Right. I forget you don't know this place that well yet." As well he shouldn't, since Otogi had been there for all of an hour at the most. "The Kaiser is Marufuji Ryou. We call him the Kaiser because he's the best duelist that's been here in _years_: the king of them all. Even Juudai hasn't beaten him, and Juudai's beaten just about everyone else here." 

Did that energy or power that Otogi had sensed around Juudai focus around dueling then? It was hard to say, since both the energy and the concept of dueling the way they did was foreign to him. Most of the people that they'd passed hadn't had any hint of that about them. 

Fubuki's grin widened with pride. "He's also my best friend. We've known each other since we were kids." 

Otogi managed a smile back, but the thought of how he would never again see _his_ friends dug into his heart briefly. It wasn't Fubuki's fault, so he didn't dwell on it. "Can't wait to see him, then." 

"A lot of people say that and wish they didn't," Fubuki teased. "He can be kind of brutal when he's dueling sometimes. Not all the time, though." 

"And this is the guy who is going to help teach me how to do this?" Otogi's lips curved slightly in amusement. This was getting more interesting by the moment. 

"Right! He's the best of the best of the best of the best." Fubuki agreed. He led Otogi away from the main building, then over towards another large building, one with a few people, teenagers mostly, wandering around. They wore for the most part similar outfits to what Fubuki had on, with a preponderance of blue. "This is the Obelisk Blue dorm. It's supposed to be for the best of the students on the island, but since Juudai came, things have gotten shaken up some." 

"How's that?" Otogi asked curiously. If he was going to be staying here a while, then it would make sense for him to know what was going on. 

"Well, he's probably one of the best that have ever come here, but he doesn't want to leave Osiris Red," Fubuki told him. "He beat Professor Chronos in his entrance exam. _No one_ we know has ever beaten him, not with that Ancient Gear Golem of his." At Otogi's slightly quizzical look, Fubuki went on, "It's a really powerful and rare card. Hardly anyone has a copy. It's not like the Blue Eyes White Dragon or the God Cards, but it's still pretty rare anyway. And Juudai beat it. With Hane Kuriboh." The amusement in his voice told Otogi this was supposed to be something funny, but he decided to laugh about it once he actually knew more about the game. 

The Obelisk Blue dorms were gorgeous, almost as much so as Atemu's palace had been. Obviously the styles were different, but quality work was quality work no matter what. Otogi thought he could get used to this kind of surroundings. 

"Let's see…Yuusuke could probably help out too but I think he's busy today," Fubuki murmured out loud as they started down one of the corridors. "So it'll just be you, me, and Ryou." 

"Yuusuke?" The name twitched something in the back of Otogi's mind but he couldn't place it. Maybe he'd heard of someone with it before he'd been sealed. It wasn't unlikely. A lot of the names here were vaguely similar to ones that he was familiar with anyway. 

"Fujiwara Yuusuke. He's my other best friend," Fubuki replied. He frowned a little, an unaccostumed expression on his usually happy face. "I'm a little worried about him, though." 

"Why?" 

"I'm not really sure. He's been up to something lately and hasn't told me or Ryou what he's doing. That's not like him." Fubuki shrugged it off with a grin. "Probably just trying to come up with another new strategy to beat me or Ryou. He keeps wanting to do it but he hasn't yet. See, with the three of us, I beat Yuusuke, and Ryou beats me, most of the time. But Yuusuke hasn't yet been able to beat me or Ryou at all. So he spends a lot of time trying to figure out a way to do that. Even though he can beat almost everyone else here anyway." 

Otogi nodded, a faint trace of concern flickering through him. Something about that just screamed _familiar_, and he couldn't figure out why. Maybe when he met Yuusuke he'd be able to figure it out. 

"Ryou! Ryou, are you in here?" Fubuki threw open a door without bothering to knock and motioned for Otogi to follow him. "I've got someone I want to introduce you to!" 

"Fubuki." A quiet and calm voice answered, without even a hint of annoyance for the other's precipitous entrance. "Do you ever knock?" 

"Why should I?" Fubuki grinned over at someone Otogi couldn't quite see yet. "Then you'd know I was there! That loses the element of surprise." 

A quiet sigh, and then the other turned to look at them. At the sight of Otogi, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly, then he looked at Fubuki. "And this would be?" 

"Otogi Ryuuji. He's going to be seeing if he wants to join the Academy." Fubuki told him. Then without so much as pausing for a breath, he went on, "He's also a djinn. Manjoume and I found his magic crystal on the beach a little while ago, and since he can't go anywhere unless I take it somewhere, and I'm staying here, he's going to be here." 

Otogi braced for laughter or a dismissal of what Fubuki had said. Instead, Ryou only looked at him with calm curiosity. "I don't believe I've ever met a djinn before." 

"I think I'd be surprised if you had. No one around here seems to know anything about where I'm from, much less what I am." Otogi shrugged. "I can prove it if you want me to, if you think I'm lying." 

Ryou only looked at him, and Otogi decided to take that as a request for proof. He didn't really want to shock him the way he had Sameshima, so he just held out one hand palm up. "Nothing up my sleeve, especially since I don't have sleeves," he quipped, eyes glinting in amusement. "So where is this coming from?" Between one breath and the next, there was a swirl of emerald green sparkles, and in their wake was left a cup of wine. "Anyone else care for a drink?" 

"Are you old enough for that?" Ryou asked calmly, the faintest hint of an amused smile twitching at his lips. Otogi grinned back at him. 

"I was almost a century old when I was trapped in that crystal and I still haven't figured out how long I was in there." He offered the wine towards Ryou. "If you'd like to taste it yourself to make sure it's not some kind of illusion, go ahead." 

Ryou eyed it, then reached out and picked it up. Otogi thought he noticed the faintest hint of hesitancy, and wasn't very surprised. If he were a human and had seen that, he'd be a little careful as well. The other drank only a sip before he offered it back. "So, you 'belong' to Fubuki now, it seems." 

"That's the way it works. He owns the crystal, and I'm bound to it." Otogi sipped some of the wine himself. It had been quite a while since he'd had anything to eat or drink, after all. Creating meals had always been one of his favorite pastimes before all of this had happened to him. "I'm his until he gives it to someone else, someone takes it from him, or a way to break the binding happens. I'm not exactly expecting that last one, though." 

Fubuki shook his head firmly. "But that's what I want to try to find out. No one should have to belong to someone else!" 

"The library might be able to help," Ryou suggested thoughtfully. "It does mostly concern dueling history, but there may be other books that could have answers in them." 

"We can look there later," Fubuki declared. "For now, we want to see if he can learn how to duel so he can be a real student here. If he can, then even after we get rid of that binding, he can stay!" 

Otogi was quickly learning that excitement and enthusiasm were two of the emotions that defined Fubuki. He also was quickly learning that he liked that. A lot. If dueling meant spending more time with him and learning more about him, then he would do it and gladly so. Besides, some of the names of the cards had begun to stir memories. There was a hint of familiarity in there somewhere, and he wanted a chance to learn just what it meant. 

"Have you ever dueled before?" Ryou asked, turning his full attention onto Otogi. 

The djinn shook his head quietly. "It wasn't invented when I was last out of that. I'd never heard of it until I came here." He didn't mention the familiarity of the names. Not until he knew exactly why, at least. 

Ryou went over to a closet and rummaged around for a few minutes before he came back with a slightly dusty slender booklet. "These are the rules of dueling as we currently practice it. They've changed over the years, but this is what you'll be doing if you duel with us." He brushed at the dust a little bit. The booklet obviously hadn't been touched in years. Otogi wondered if that was because he'd memorized everything in it to the point he didn't need to look at it anymore. "I would suggest reading this over before you start to think about which cards you'd like to use." 

Otogi took it as Ryou handed it over, brushing more of the dust off. He could clean it up all the way later. He looked through it a little, not really reading it, and paused at one illustration. _Battle Ox._ The name felt more than a bit familiar, but he just couldn't remember it. Why couldn't he? He could remember almost everything else about his life before his bondage. The names and faces of his friends. The way towns and cities had looked. Things they'd done together. The way the monsters that the priests and sorcerers had summoned looked… 

His fingers clenched suddenly at that. _That's it._ That was what this had been reminding him of! The battles that were waged between those who had the ability to summon either their own monster ka or the ka of others which had been sealed into the slabs! Atemu and Yuugi had been two of the best, as had Bakura and Ryou. Jounouchi had had some talent at it, though Honda and Anzu hadn't been all that good at it. He'd never tried himself. He'd had his own powers to use, and they'd served him well until Darkness had made his approach. 

"Otogi?" Fubuki prodded at him with one finger. "Are you all right?" 

Otogi's head snapped up, and Fubuki was startled to see literal flames in his green eyes for a moment before they went back to normal. "I'm fine. I was just remembering something, that's all." The tone of his voice would have warned most people this was slightly treacherous ground to tread on. Fubuki heard it to. The difference with him was, it didn't bother him to walk on treacherous ground. 

"What was it? Something we can help with?" 

Otogi's grip tightened on the booklet for a moment, then he forced himelf to relax. "I don't know. I'm not even sure what to think about it myself." He took a quiet breath. "But I do know I have to figure out how long it's been since I was put in that crystal and what happened to my friends." 

Fubuki laid a hand on Otogi's shoulder and smiled at him warmly. "I'll help. Anything you need, I'll do my best to help you get it." 

Otogi looked back at him with a warm smile of his own. "Thank you." 

**To Be Continued**


	6. Yuusuke

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Yuusuke  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Darkness pressed in all around him. If he knew how to move the right way, how to look the right way, Yuusuke was certain that he could find a way to _touch_ it. To have that power for his own and use it for his own ends. He wasn't entirely certain what those ends would be at the moment, but he wanted the power regardless. Then when he knew what he wanted to do, he'd have it. 

He reached out, aching, needing that power, that dark seductive touch. But before he could do more than start to reach, it faded away, leaving him with nothing more than the ordinary shadows of a room with the lights turned off. 

He sagged down, trying to catch his breath as exhaustion wrapped around him. He didn't get as tired as he had when he'd first begun his experiments, but it was still very draining to do all of this. 

_I'll manage,_ he promised himself. He would get stronger and he would find that power, no matter what. He was almost certain that he'd heard the voice of it. There had been something there. 

He closed his eyes, wanting to feel the darkness again. It was more than just a way to power, really. He was convinced that he was a part of it, that had broken away somehow, to be born in a mortal body. Maybe it didn't make any sense, but he couldn't think of any other reasons for why he was so drawn to the Dark Games. 

He didn't bother to turn the lights on, and wouldn't have even if his eyes had been open. That was one good side effect of his researches. He no longer needed light, artificial or otherwise, to see what was going on around him. He almost didn't even need his eyes to be open. He just…knew. 

That was something Fubuki and Ryou couldn't do. They were his friends, but that didn't mean he didn't hate them on occasion. It was so easy for them to do anything and everything. Ryou had been a rising star of the world of Duel Monsters for as long as anyone could remember. People had insisted that once he was old enough for the Pro Leagues, he'd blow them all away. And Fubuki…well, Fubuki was Fubuki. A dazzling duelist, a fantastic kind of guy in every sense of the word. Girls lined up to talk to him, or just to have him smile at them. 

And he got all of that by reflection alone. He wasn't even certain of why they liked him sometimes. To have someone to look down on? He hadn't always thought that. Just months ago, he'd thought they actually liked him. But now he wasn't all that certain anymore. 

But with what he was learning now, he could and he would outshine them both. He would outshine everyone at the Academy, and in the Pro Leagues, and _everywhere_. 

**Yes. You will.**

The voice was deeper, richer, _darker_ than anything he'd ever heard before. Yuusuke's eyes snapped open by reflex, and he stared. Not at anything in particular, because there was nothing he could see to stare at. Even his eyes couldn't see through the thick shadows that had boiled up from nowhere. 

"Who…what…" 

**You should know me. You've been looking for me for some time.** There was nothing but dark amusement in the voice. Yuusuke wasn't even certain if it was a voice, and not just something he heard or felt. But he knew what it wanted to tell him regardless. 

He tried to get up, only to find he couldn't move at all. "What's going on?" 

**Quiet.** Yuusuke had the odd feeling that someone or something was staring at him. That the darkness itself had finally turned its attention on him. Excitement hummed along his nerves. At last! It had finally happened! He'd made contact with the darkness! 

"What can I do for you?" he almost babbled. He wanted to know more, he wanted to have more, and this Darkness could give it to him! But there would be a price. Every book he'd read had told him that. To deal with the shadows, there was always a price. 

If Darkness had been a human, or possessed of a human body, Yuusuke had the strong sensation that he would be being walked around now. Inspected, to see if he were suitable for whatever the speakng shadows wanted him for. 

**Nothing.** The reply came at last. **There is nothing you can do for me. But there is a great deal that I can do for you.** Amusement still wrapped around those words, and Yuusuke shivered. There had to be something he could do. If not, then the bargain wouldn't be equal and many of the books had indicated that was a very bad situation to get into. 

"Are you sure? I mean...don't you need a host or something?" He'd read something of that, in recent books put out. There had been spirits who had needed host bodies. He couldn't have what they had, but it didn't make a difference. It was still a starting point towards finding the power he wanted. 

**You would be a host for me?** Even more amusement filtered through now. He thought there was something else but he was too excited to focus on it properly. 

"Yes! You said that you could do things for me. But that's something I can do for you!" He didn't bring up the part about the bargain being equal. He wasn't certain what Darkness could offer that would equal giving over his body. 

There was silence, but he was certain that Darkness was still there, watching him. "What…can you do for me?" he asked at last, wanting to know. 

**Much. Much that you can't begin to comprehend at the moment. But for what you can now: power. Prestige. Fame. _Power_.** The way the word was emphasized again appealed to Yuusuke. It was what he'd wanted, after all. More than anything he wanted to be stronger than the Kaiser and Fubuki. They were his best friends, but his greatest rivals as well. 

"What…do you want me to do?" he asked quietly. "What do I have to do for it?" 

**There will be a great deal that you will have to do. There is a ritual that can bind us together. Perform it, and all that you have wanted will be yours.** Yuusuke had always heard that darkness could be seductive. Now he was hearing it for himself. It wasn't seductive in the sense that Fubuki could be when he exerted himself. This was the call of power, the lure of achievement and success… 

And he gave himself over to it without a second thought. 

"Tell me how to do it!" Yuusuke declared. He would beat Ryou! And Fubuki! And Juudai! And everyone else in the school who had ever done anything to him! And all the rest, just so they wouldn't get any ideas about doing anything to him! Then the Pro Leagues… 

**And then the world.** Darkness chuckled softly, and Yuusuke shivered regardless. There was something so inhuman about that sound. But he had other things to concern himself with. 

"How? How can I do it? Please let me know!" 

Something landed in front of him, and he twitched, wanting to touch it or at least see it. But this depth of shadow was too much even for him to see through. **It's in there. There will be time before you can do it. Use that time to learn, because you will need it.**

Yuusuke frowned; learn what? But Darkness gave no answers, and the shadows lessened to the point he could see through them. He found he could move again, and looked down before him to see a slender book, bound in black leather, but without a title or an author's name on it. There was also a strap keeping it closed, but when he touched it, it fell open. 

At first, there was nothing he could see. Just blank pages. He growled deep in his throat; was this some kind of a trick? All that promised power, nothing more than a deception? 

He touched the edge of one page to turn it, then jerked his hand back, staring. It wasn't the first time he'd gotten a paper cut, but there was something that was just wrong about the way this felt. He shook his hand some, and three drops of blood flew out to land on the pages. 

And as they sank in, words began to bubble up, forming in an elegant and unfamiliar handwriting. The ink, if ink it was, was a pure blood red, and he thought he caught a faint scent of something metallic, stronger than that little bit of blood should have caused. But he soon put it out of his mind as he started to read. 

From the beginning, the book told of the ritual. It was much more complex than he had thought it might be. In a sense, it was three rituals, each to be accomplished about one week apart, and the last one would result in the final binding of his soul to Darkness. 

_I won't have much time. The final ritual has to be done on the night of the dark of the moon and that's in…_ He frowned, when _was_ that? He couldn't remember having looked out at the moon or the sun or anything outdoors for the longest time. He was sure he'd done it, passing from one dorm to another, but at the same time, he couldn't remember anything that had to do with the light at all. 

Well, that was what a calendar was for. Or Fubuki. With all of his romantic nonsense, it was certain Fubuki would know what the phase of the moon was. 

Yuusuke slowly got to his feet and brushed off his uniform. The working rooms here were kept clean, but he brushed himself off anyway. He tucked the book into one of his pockets, glad it was thin enough so no one would notice anything unusual. The last thing he wanted was anyone asking what class it was for. 

He strolled calmly out of the room and headed for the exit. There were a few other people around, but he paid little attention to them. Sure, they were studying the Dark Games as well, but they hadn't gone as far as _he_ had, and he doubted that they ever would. He was going to be part of the darkness itself. _Darkness_ himself had spoken to him. Just the memory of that voice was enough to thrill his soul from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. 

When he stepped out into the afternoon sunshine, Yuusuke winced a little, and covered his eyes. If going to the darkness meant that light would be so painful, he decided that he would have to pick up a pair of sunglasses. It was a small price to pay. Though perhaps a mask of some kind might even be better… 

He frowned a bit at that. A mask? No, sunglasses would do just fine. Fubuki might even have a pair he could borrow. He wasn't sure if they'd be in his particular _style_, but they would do until he could either get a pair of his own or fix something about all this wretched light. And he could ask about the phases of the moon at the same time. 

He headed on off to Obelisk Blue, his eyes narrowed as best he could to lessen the light but still see. He really wanted those sunglasses now. Or at least to get into a room where he could turn the lights off, draw the curtains, and enjoy a little quiet relaxation in the shadows. He could delay starting his preparations just for a little while. 

Somewhere behind him, in the shadows cast by the dorm, something that was not human smiled, in a way that no human ever _could_ smile. **I feel you here, my djinn. Such wonderful timing as well.**

Darkness watched quietly until Yuusuke was out of sight. It was so wonderful to have such a useful tool around. And there was so much that he had left to do. A world of never ending shadows would be very soon be his. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	7. Recognization

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Recognization  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"And this is my room!" Fubuki waved a hand around the room he'd just shown to Otogi. "I guess you could call it our room now, though." He said it without a trace of self-consciousness at all, and Otogi could only smile. In his entire life, he'd never met someone like Fubuki before. He wondered if there _was_ anyone like him at all anywhere else in all the world. 

"Not bad," he admitted, glancing around. He'd seen somewhat more opulent accomodations, but not that many, not where a school was involved. Not that he'd spent a lot of time around schools, but that didn't make much of a difference. "You've got a really good place here." 

"I love this place," Fubuki said honestly, his words including more than just this room or even the Obelisk Blue dorm. "I can't imagine ever really wanting to be anywhere else. First time I came here, I felt like I was coming home." 

Otogi nodded and wandered over to a window to take a look outside. There was a large tree growing within reaching distance, and the branches were at just the perfect spots to provide a natural ladder going down to the ground. He glanced up a little, and wasn't surprised to find they were on the highest floor of this dorm. He looked a bit more closely, and was even less surprised to see something like wear on the branches. He'd seen this before, and grinned a little. 

"So, how often do you sneak out at night and go wandering around doing whatever it is you do at night?" he asked casually. Fubuki looked over and grinned. 

"At least once a week or so. Midnight swims most of the time, or just rambling around the island." He shrugged some casually. "You're welcome to come along next time. It can get a bit boring alone, and Ryou or Yuusuke don't always want to come along." 

That name again. Yuusuke. Otogi tried to think of why it sent the shivers down his spine that he did, and came up with nothing once more. There had to be a reason for it. 

"Sure. Sounds like it would be fun." If Fubuki gave him a choice, then he would certainly take it. There was nothing more interesting than running around having fun in the middle of the night with someone that he was close friends with. And he suspected that he and Fubuki were going to be very close friends indeed. 

"Great!" Fubuki grinned at him cheerfully. "We can do it tonight!" 

Otogi grinned back at him; of all the ways that he had ever thought he would be spending his first day out of the crystal, this wasn't one of them. He'd expected Darkness and slavery, not sunshine and new friends. _And hot looking new friends at that._

Before he could formulate anything that was like a thanks, a knock sounded from the door. Both he and Fubuki looked over as it swung open, revealing a young man that looked to be about Fubuki's own age. 

"Fubuki? Mind if I come in? I need to ask you some things." 

"Hey, come on in, Yuusuke! I was just talking about you, kind of." Fubuki waved him in, and Otogi found his fists clenching and a sudden shock of sweat standing out all over him. The last time he'd been this furious had been when he'd been chained in Darkness's magical work room. The iron-bit scars on his wrists twinged ever so slightly… 

"You were?" Yuusuke blinked as he came in, then saw Otogi there. "Oh. I didn't know you had company." He appeared ready to turn back around when Fubuki shook his head. 

"You don't have to go. This is Otogi. He's going to be sticking around for a while to see if he wants to go to the Academy. Until he figures it out, he'll be staying in here with me." 

Yuusuke glanced again at Otogi, and for a moment, the djinn could have sworn there was a mask concealing half of Yuusuke's face: a very familiar mask. _No. He's not Darkness. Darkness wouldn't be anything like that._

There was something different about him, however, and not in the way he was coming to recognize among some of the other students there. Otogi was struck by a sudden sense of caution. All of his instincts demanded that this stranger _not_ know what he was. Ryou had been safe. He felt even Juudai would be safe, for those few seconds he'd been in the other's presence. But this one…was not. 

"Oh. A pleasure to meet you then, Otogi." Yuusuke nodded slightly towards him. "I hope you stay." Otogi wondered if those words were out of simple courtesy or something else. 

Then he turned his attention back towards Fubuki. "Do you happen to have a pair of sunglasses I can borrow? It's getting really bright out there, and it's hurting my eyes a little." 

"Oh, sure, no problem." Fubuki got to his feet and rummaged around in a drawer before he pulled out a pair. It was a wild and crazy decorated pair, just the sort of thing Otogi would have described for Fubuki if someone had asked him what he thought Fubuki would wear. "How're these?" 

Yuusuke made a slight face. "Are you sure you don't have anything quieter?" 

"I'm not hearing any noise from them." Fubuki said with a completely straight face. "But I really don't think that you'd like the other pair." 

The other winced again, then reached for the sunglasses. "I suppose. Oh, there was something else I was wondering." 

"What's that?" 

"When is the new moon? There's going to be some kind of meteor shower visible right around then, and if the moon's new, then I can have the best chance of seeing it all." Otogi was no student of astronemy, but something about that rang as off to him. Fubuki appeared to take Yuusuke's words at face value however. 

"Got a bit over two weeks to wait for that. It's the full moon now, so, two more weeks until it's new." Fubuki gestured briefly towards a calendar on the far wall, one that displayed some of the more beautiful natural wonders of the world. "See, it's marked right over there. Are you sure that's when your meteor shower will be?" 

Yuusuke nodded at once. "The book wasn't exactly clear on when. I think it's one of those old ones. You know how they are sometimes." He slipped the sunglasses on and sighed briefly in relief. "Thanks, Fubuki. I needed that." 

"No problem." Fubuki shrugged casually. "Hey, you want to help Otogi learn how to duel? He's still really new at it." 

"No, thanks." Yuusuke shook his head very slightly. "I'm not really feeling all that well. I think I should go lay down. But perhaps another time?" 

"You got it!" Fubuki nodded quickly. "Are you sure you don't need to go see the nurse?" 

Yuusuke shook his head again, a little more forcefully this time. "No. I just need to rest for a while, that's all. I'll be fine." 

"If you're sure." Fubuki looked at him, a hint of worry in his eyes. This was one of his friends, after all. 

"I am. Enjoy yourselves." Yuusuke nodded briefly, then turned and left, closing the door behind himself with a soft thump. 

Otogi stared at where he'd been for a few moments, thinking as hard as he could. Just where he'd heard that name or seen that face wouldn't come to him, but he was certain they were both familiar in an odd sort of way. "I know him," he murmured to himself. "Or someone like him." 

"Huh?" Fubuki turned to look at him. "I didn't hear you." 

"I said I know him," Otogi repeated, looking over. "At least I think I do. He feels a little familiar." He shrugged. "It's been a long time, it's possible that I just met someone like him before I was trapped." He didn't think that was entirely it, though. It was _close_, but it wasn't the right answer. 

Fubuki shrugged. "Anything's possible." He glanced over at the clock on the wall and thought for a moment. "I think it's about dinner time. Want to get something to eat?" 

"Sure. It's been a while since I had something to eat." That little cup of wine hadn't done a whole lot for him, after all. His stomach growled rather insistenly at the thought of food. That was one thing that humans and djinn had in common: they had to eat, and eat regularly, or things got very unpleasant. 

Fubuki jumped to his feet and started for the door. "You're going to love eating at Obelisk! We've got all the best stuff." 

Otogi let that slide; he doubted that this food could compare to the feasts he'd shared at Atemu's table, or that of his djinn clan. But probably for the time and place it was pretty awesome. He'd make do. 

But the problem of Yuusuke still scraped at his mind. He didn't like not knowing things, especially not given the current situation. Something he couldn't explain screamed _wrong_ and _danger_ to him in a voice that he couldn't deny. 

"Fubuki, are you sure Yuusuke is all right?" he asked as they headed out into the hallway. "I've got a weird feeling he isn't." That was putting it relatively mildly, after all. 

Fubuki glanced down the hallway, presumbly towards Yuusuke's room. "Why wouldn't he be, though? Why would he want to lie to me?" 

"Well, it might not be lying," Otogi pointed out. "He could feel worse than he said and just not want to worry you." He wasn't buying that personally. "Or I could be wrong." 

"I think we should just let him rest," Fubuki said, turning away towards the stairs that led down. A few others were coming out of their rooms now and heading that way. Apparently the thought of dinner time had come to just about everyone. "If he needs any help, he'll let us know. He usually does." 

Otogi winced briefly, but couldn't think of any other arguments that might make sense. Fubuki also wasn't exactly giving him orders, but the nature of the spell inclined him to listen even against his personal better judgment at the moment. For that matter, his own better judgment was telling him that backing off might be the best course. All he really had to go on was a gut feeling and something that might be a half-formed memory. 

_One you're not even sure of,_ he told himself grumpily as he followed Otogi down the stairs. There were others giving him looks, probably because he was dressed in more casual attire than their uniforms, but he ignored them for the moment. As much as he enjoyed a crowd, there were other things for him to think about right now. _What if he just resembles someone that you used to know and that's why it's setting off all of your bad vibes?_

That kind of thing was something every djinn had to be aware of, given their lifespan versus that of a human. Many a love story had fallen apart, or tale of vengenace gone seriously awry, because a djinn had forgotten that humans just didn't live as long as they did, and that sometimes people could look alike who had no relation to one another whatsoever. One of his uncles had a sad little story like that to tell, about a human girl he'd loved when he was young, and then he'd had to take a long trip that had turned out to last almost sixty years. A bare breath of a moment in djinn consciousness, but when he'd returned to her, she had become a grandmother. 

That was one of the reasons djinn and mortals so seldom had anything beyond friendship. Otogi had been rare in that so many of his friends _had_ been mortal. He'd never had the chance to make any of the arrangements that his kind usually did when associating with the short lived race, thanks to Darkness. 

Something hovered in his mind, like two ends of string that wanted to connect. Yuusuke. Darkness. Something was _there_, but he couldn't figure it out just yet. 

"Here we are! The Obelisk Blue boy's dorm dining room!" Fubuki declared, breaking into his thoughts. Otogi glanced around and blinked a few times. 

The first thought through his mind was that Atemu's decorators could've gotten some _good_ tips from these guys. 

The first thought through his mind when he tasted the food was that his cooks could have too. 

**To Be Continued**


	8. Manjoume

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Manjoume  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Manjoume wasn't all that surprised as the last of his monsters vanished into a holographic dazzle and his life points drained away. He'd almost expected that from the moment he'd dragged Juudai off to have a duel. He hadn't managed to beat him yet, but he knew he would, someday. The point hadn't really been who won the duel. The point had just been to get away from Fubuki for a little while. 

Fubuki and that stranger. That _djinn_. The thought of that still disturbed him a little. The fact that his Ojamas had been able to sniff out the crystal or whatever it was they had done was even more disturbing. They'd actually been _useful_. He was still getting used to that. 

"Want a rematch?" Juudai asked, gathering his cards back into his deck. 

"Maybe later." Manjoume turned his gaze back to the Obelisk dorms. He was certain he'd seen Otogi and Fubuki heading there. He wondered if finding out he was partially responsible for uncovering a djinn would impress Asuka. 

He wasn't all that sure it would. Very little seemed to impress her, no matter how hard he tried. He could scarcely get her to acknowledge him when it wasn't a class problem. He ground his teeth some; what did he have to do to get that girl's attention? Save the world? Take over the world? Start a cult? Whatever it was, he would do it. 

"Thinking about Asuka again, aren't you?" Juudai poked at him a little, an amused gleam to his eyes. Manjoume wanted to strangle him just for that alone. 

"What business is it of yours if I am?" 

Juudai just shrugged. "Hey, if you get her, great. But it's just not looking good, that's all I'm saying." 

Yeah. As if Manjoume had somehow missed that fact. "Well, I've got a better chance than _you_ do!" 

The other blinked at him, confusion in those large eyes. "Of course you do. _You're_ the one that wants to go out with her, not me." The way Juudai said it made Manjoume think that he'd left the word 'duh' off on purpose. 

Manjoume snorted some and started to gather up his own cards. He was going to have to practice harder if he wanted to beat Juudai and get on Asuka's good side. At least he had a chance at one of those. Asuka didn't _hate_ him, he was certain of that. She just wasn't all that interested in dating him. Yet. 

_I really thought…_ Recalling the look she'd given him when they'd been pulled out of that cave, his heart spasmed a little. They'd been trapped there nearly twelve hours, and he'd done everything he could to make certain she was all right, ignoring his own safety. His arms still twinged at the thought of all those rocks when they'd fallen past him. He was just lucky that nothing had been broken, and the sprain in his ankle had been a minor one that had healed up inside of a week. 

"Hey, big brother!" He winced as the Ojamas leaped out of his cards at his touch. "Sorry about that! We'll get him next time, promise!" It was Ojama Yellow who had spoken, with his brothers hanging off of him and nodding in agreement. 

"You keep saying that and it never happens," he grumbled, putting the cards back into their holder. "Some help all of you are." One would think being able to hear the spirits of virtually all of his cards would help him in a duel, not to mention the fact he could on occasion hear just about everyone else's cards too. Where Juudai was concerned, it didn't. Ever. 

"Aww…" Ojama Yellow drooped his head. Manjoume might've felt sorry for him, if he hadn't just lost a duel. "We'll do better!" He'd heard that one before too. 

"Hey, whatever happene to that weird crystal thing?" Ojama Black looked all around. "And that guy inside of it?" 

"Shut up about that!" Manjoume snapped, glancing quickly towards Juudai. He was more worried that the other duelist might actually hear him talking to the Ojamas than anything else. He'd insisted for months that they weren't actually there, while Juudai had simply accepted their existence, and kept on trying to get him to think it was normal. _Yeah. Let him have to listen to all of **his** cards night after night._ The fact he'd occasionally heard Juudai murmuring to something after lights out was easily and quickly brushed aside. 

Juudai wandered over to them, and Manjoume practiced ignoring the fact Hane Kuriboh was hovering over to one side. He also ignored the fact that the Ojamas went over and the four of them started to babble to each other. "What are they talking about?" Juudai asked, scratching his head. 

"It's nothing!" Manjoume retorted quickly. "You know them. They're idiots." He refused to acknowledge that he was ignoring them and talking about them in the same breath. He was Manjoume Thunder, and he could do that if he wanted to. 

"Doesn't sound like nothing. What guy in a crystal?" Juudai might be something of an idiot, but there was a brain under there somewhere, and once in a great while it could do more than duel. Manjoume hated it when he had to face that fact. Which was why he didn't do it unless he absolutely had to. 

"Just some stupid thing that washed up on the beach. Fubuki's got it now." He did his best to keep his voice sounding careless. _If he finds out about Otogi being a djinn, he'll babble it all over the school._ There were plenty of idiots who would do anything to get hold of something that powerful. He knew he'd been one of them once. 

Though he also had to admit to himself that a djinn would've been very useful at getting himself and Asuka out of that cave-in without even the minor injuries they'd received. 

"And there was someone inside of it?" Juudai's voice was incredulous. Apparently even he had his limits on what he was going to believe offhand. Manjoume had never thought he'd see the day. 

"Look, if you can promise to keep your mouth shut, I'll tell you." It wasn't often that Manjoume could do something like this, so he was going to milk it for what it was worth. "Otherwise, you can just try to figure it out on your own." 

Juudai eyed him a little, then looked rather pointedly at their respective duel spirits before he looked back at Manjoume. The black-clad duelist got the point virtually at once: his mouthy partners were going to tell no matter what. 

"All right, fine. But _don't_ spread it around, no matter what. There's too many idiots on this island." He could name two dozen offhand, and that was just some of their fellow first years in Obelisk. The list would get a lot longer if he started to think about the Yellows and the Reds. 

Juudai shrugged. "Hey, I can keep a secret. So what's the story?" 

"Fubuki and I were hitting the beach, and we found this crystal thing. Kind of pretty, I guess." Manjoume shrugged a bit at that. "Fubuki picked it up and brushed it off, and this guy came out of it. Said his name was Otogi and he's a djinn that's bound to the crystal somehow. And since Fubuki's got it, he belongs to him now." That was it, short and sweet. 

"Wow. Cool!" Juudai's eyes lit up at the very thought. "I wish _I_ had a djinn! I wonder what kind of wishes he's going to make." 

"You got me. Just keep it quiet, okay?" He knew what he would wish: he'd wish that he'd never seen the thing in the first place. 

Juudai nodded eagerly. "So, that guy was a djinn. I thought there was something a bit weird about him." Then he shrugged himself. "Maybe I can really meet him later. I think I hear some fried shrimp calling me, though." 

Manjoume wondered sometimes if Juudai had too many thoughts that didn't revolve around eating or dueling. If it made him happy, and kept him out of Manjoume's way to the top, that was fine. Not that it was apparently keeping him out of the way…but that was something he could deal with later. 

"I'm going to go somewhere else now," he stated firmly. Juudai did not need to know where the somewhere else would be. Manjoume would be just as satisfied if he didn't know anyway. "You just remember what I said." 

"Sure, sure." Juudai waved a hand carelessly, then started on the way back to the Red dorms, Hane Kuriboh following him, and trilling softly. "Yeah, I know, partner. Pretty cool. I wonder if he could make me an endless plate of fried shrimp. Maybe I should ask Fubuki if he'd do that for me?" 

Manjoume buried his head in his hands for a moment. It was just lucky they didn't have to depend on Juudai for anything important, like saving the world. They'd all be doomed. 

Once the other was out of sight, Manjoume started away himself, going in a different direction entirely. His trail led him past the school buildings and up through the forest to the mountainous regions. It had been a while since he'd been this way, but he could find it easily. 

Before very long, he stood outside of a cave entrance that was halfway barred with rocks. It was still possible to squirm past there and into it, and that was what he did. It was dangerous to do this. He knew that better than anyone, and he ignored the faint false twinge that his ankle gave just at being there. 

It had been nearly six weeks ago, and almost a month after he'd returned to the Academy from North School. He'd made his decision to stay there, no matter what, and he'd broken off virtually all ties with his brothers. He still had access to his share of the family money, of course. Because of the way their parents had set things up, there was no way that either of them could cut him off. Not that he didn't think they'd tried. They just couldn't do it. 

Because of how long he'd been gone, he'd had to start over in Osisis Red, however. That cut deeply into him. He couldn't bring himself to stay there more than he absolutely had to. The food was atrocious, the accomodations were _repulsive_, and the company was Juudai, Shou, and Hayato more than it was anyone else. 

It was those conditions that had led him to wandering the woods and mountains behind the school as much as he could. He didn't quite like to admit it, but during his quest for his cards for the North School, he'd developed something of a preference for the outdoors. As long as he could get back into the proper comfort of a room after hours of romping around, of course. What was the point of being outside if you couldn't get away from it with a little indoors, after all? 

On one of those trips, he'd found this little cave right here, and had started to come there regularly to do his homework and get away from the far too small room that was supposedly his in Osiris Red. He hardly felt as if he could breathe in there sometimes. 

And on other times, he just liked to sit there and watch the stars and the moon go by through the night sky. In his black clothes, he felt far more a part of the living night than he ever had in blue, and he would not wear red no matter what. 

It had been while he was watching everything that Asuka had come by and found him. He'd always known she was pretty. You'd have to be blind not to know that. But she'd sat down and talked to him, and he'd found out that she was actually _smart_ as well. He'd known she had to be of above average intelligence to be a duelist as good as she was. But to experience it like that wasn't something he'd expected. 

_Then it started to rain._ Sudden rainstorms weren't unknown here, and once in a while there had been the occasional flash flood. The school had been built where it was so that those infrequent occurances wouldn't bother it. But the cave wasn't quite so lucky, and nor were they. 

Hurrying into the cave to escape the rain had been common sense. But neither of them had realized that the flash flood was coming. There wasn't any way that they could have, as far as he knew, anyway. A few breathless minutes later, and they'd seen their only way out cut off as the entrance was blocked by mud and rocks. They'd been lucky that they hadn't been hurt beyond a few scratches at the time. 

He sighed a little. The twelve hours after that had almost been…enjoyable. They'd talked a lot, more because they didn't want to sit there in silence than anything else. And somewhere in there, he'd realized that he wanted to talk to her a lot more. He wanted to be with her a lot more. 

Now if only she'd felt the same way when they'd been freed, it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, Manjoume was beginning to learn that life didn't work that way for him. 

He wondered sometimes if his brothers had paid life off just to annoy him. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	9. Darkness

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Darkness  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Yuusuke relaxed on his bed, the lights out and the sunglasses still on. This wasn't as close to the real Darkness as he'd been earlier, but he would make do until he could have it again. He was patient, if he tried hard to be. Sure, there were only two weeks to wait until he could do that binding ritual, but that was all right. The other rituals would occupy him until then. 

He lay on top of the covers, thinking about nothing in particular for what appeared to be hours. Then something else began to float through his mind: or someone else. That stranger with Fubuki. Otogi. There was something so unutterably strange about him. His eyes in particular looked odd. Inhuman. _Powerful_. 

**Indeed he is.** The voice was spun of shadows itself, and Yuusuke clenched automatically at the sheets underneath him. This place wasn't prepared for Darkness, not like that other place. How could he be here? **I can always leave again,** the voice of Darkness taunted him. **If you don't want me around.**

"No!" Yuusuke all but shouted the word, then winced, hoping no one else had heard him. "No, don't. I was just surprised." To say the least. 

**Very well. Don't forget, however, that there is little I need you for and everything that you need me for. You may be a suitable host, but I can get along without one.** Yuusuke thought he saw something that might have been the glint of eyes in one corner and turne towards it. **You are right about that creature. He is powerful.**

The young duelist frowned a little. "What do you mean, creature?" That really wasn't the right word to call a person, after all. 

**Is he a person? No. He is a djinn. A creature made of magic, made to serve someone else.** Darkness's eyes, if that's what they were, moved a little around the room. Everywhere he went, the shadows grew thicker and thicker, as if they followed in his wake. **I knew him once, in another place.**

Yuusuke shook his head, not sure just what the powerful being was saying. "What do you mean?" 

**There is more than one world in existence. Someone like myself can easily move through them all.** Darkness explained, as if to a small child. **Time has no real meaning between the worlds, where I live. Not like it does in worlds such as yours.**

He still didn't quite get it but he listened to what was being said anyway. 

**There is a world much like this one. In this world and that, there are many people who are the same. Different versions, one might say. Where the Otogi Ryuuji of this world was human, the one born in that world was not. In that world, he was born a djinn.** Yuusuke was very certain there was a feral gleam of teeth in the shadows somewhere. **That world is full of power and magic of many different kinds. I was able to bond to a wizard there, a dark sorcerer who ached for power much as you do.**

Yuusuke wasn't certain, but he also thought he heard something behind those words, a kind of amused mockery. But he didn't interrupt. This story was fascinating to him, no matter how true or false it was. 

**I acquired many items and beings of power, and owning them increased my own strength. Then I came across this djinn. Young for his kind, but still full of power, and he would grow only greater in time. After great effort, I was able to capture him, and bound him by one of those few items that can hold a djinn: cold iron. You will no doubt find the scars on him even now.** Dark pride filled his voice as Darkness spoke. **I bound him to the most perfect crystal I could find. The perfection of the crystal meant the spell would be extraordinarily powerful. There are only two ways that it could be broken,and neither of them are available to him.**

"What are they?" Yuusuke wanted to know, leaning forward a little. Could he have such a powerful creature under his command? What would he have to do for it? What could he do with it? A thousands thoughts, wishes, and dreams surged through his mind. 

**You don't need to know.** Darkness told him a trifle curtly. **Suffice to say that they are both out of your reach as well. But you want him now, don't you? You want to own that djinn as much as I did.**

Yuusuke did not need to reply. Darkness understood him as no one else in his life ever had. "How can I get him?" 

**That friend of yours is the one who has the crystal now, no doubt. You will have to get it from him. He who owns the crystal owns the djinn.**

How to get it from him? Fubuki was a simple person, and easily tricked. He might even be able to just ask him for it! Or wait until he carelessly left it around somewhere. Maybe when he went on one of his little moonlight strolls. Yuusuke could think of a half a dozen ways to claim it now that he knew. 

**You should wait.** Darkness all but purred the words, and now stood behind Yuusuke. The duelist had no idea of how he'd gotten there without being seen, but there he was. **Wait until you've completed the ritual to bind us together.**

"Why? If I had it, then…" Then he wouldn't need Darkness. He would have all the power at his command then. 

A hand closed firmly about Yuusuke's throat, and he gasped suddenly. More than human strength tightened the grip. **Do you really think you wouldn't need me? He is a creature made to be owned, but he is fierce and not easily tamed. You he would laugh at. Fubuki would take the crystal back without so much as a breath of effort.** He cut off Yuusuke before he could begin to interrupt. **And if he couldn't, he has friends who would. Doesn't he?**

Yuusuke winced, though he wasn't certain if it was because of the breath being choked out of him or because he knew Darkness was right. If he raised a hand against Fubuki, there would be Ryou, there would be Asuka, there would be Manjoume, and Juudai. There'd be lesser annoyances such as Shou and Hayato as well. And if Ryou and Fubuki were involved, then certainly Sameshima and Chronos would back them up. He would have no chance. They wouldn't even have to tell the principal that he was trying to steal a djinn. Just the thought of stealing itself would be enough to get him expelled. Even being in Obelisk Blue wouldn't protect him. 

Darkness's hand slid away from his throat. **Good. You understand why you need me.**

Yuusuke nodded a little, rubbing where that hand had clenched. He was certain he'd have a bruise there now. It almost hurt to breathe. "Yeah. I understand." Darkness had certainly made his point. 

**You will have what you want. I assure you of that.** Again, the dark sensation of a smile. It shouldn't have made Yuusuke happy, but he couldn't help but _be_ happy anyway. 

He leaned back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling through the sunglasses. They didn't make much of a difference here anymore, but he didn't really feel like taking them off. He knew he should be going down to dinner, but he wasn't angry at all. 

**Eat.** Darkness would have appeared concerned, if Yuusuke had believed he could be. Which he didn't. **Your body is going to be going through some very interesting changes very soon.** The humor wasn't any darker, but it was a little different, more mocking. **You want to keep yourself strong. You could also learn more about my djinn.**

"Your djinn?" Yuusuke didn't quite like the sound of that. Darkness was going to help him get _his_ desires and wishes with that creature, so why was he called it _his_? When really, it was Yuusuke's? Just because he needed Darkness's help didn't mean that it would belong to the dark shadow. 

**Yes. Mine. It's my spell that binds him, my chains that scarred him.** Darkness all but hissed the words. **Whatever else happens, do not forget that…or you'll never have him in the first place.**

Yuusuke closed his eyes for a few moments. He really felt more like taking a nap than anything else. He could pick up some food later. There was always something available in the Obelisk kitchens. He hadn't been this tired just a little while ago. 

**You're still not used to trafficking with the shadows.** Darkness was now farther away from him, on the far side of the bed, out of reach. Yuusuke did not want to admit that he was a little relieved by this. **You need food and rest both. You'll grow stronger the more time passes and as you begin to work towards the binding ritual.**

"Right." He nodded a little, then was caught by a yawn. "I think I'm going to try to get some sleep." He frowned a bit as he began to pull the blankets back to do so. "How did you get in here, anyway?" He hoped that he would get an answer, if he asked somewhat politely, this time. 

For a few moments, he thought he was wrong, and that Darkness would say nothing. Then a low laugh came from all around him. He shivered at some of what was implied in that laugh. **I can go anywhere I want, fool. You forget what I am.**

Yuusuke frowned even more, confused, then it snapped into place. "Darkness…" 

**Precisely. Where it is, I am.** And the shadows crowded thickly around Yuusuke at that, even as he removed the sunglasses and rubbed at his eyes. **Where it goes, I go.** The shadows wrapped around him, caressing him, touching him, filling him. **You can never escape me, even if you wanted to. There is darkness in every heart, no matter how pure they think themselves.** He was being held, as a mother held a child, as a nurturer held that which they were tending. **There is darkness in your heart. And soon _I_ will be in your heart. That's what you want, isn't it?**

"Yes…" Yuusuke whispered the assent as softly as he could and still be heard. He thought that might not have even been necessary. If Darkness was in him like he said he was, couldn't he hear his very thoughts? There was more than sufficient evidence of that already. 

**It isn't so long to wait.** Darkness almost was reassuring. **Any fool can hand themselves over to a cause on a whim. But only someone who is _truly_ dedicated will go through what you will to welcome me into you. That dedication will be rewarded. You can trust me on that.**

That sounded almost pleasant. Yuusuke liked it, too. He was certain he could trust Darkness, at least where this was concerned. He would have the power that he craved so much, and all the respect he'd ever wanted and more so. 

He grew warmer and warmer under the blankets, and he could still feel Darkness there, watching. He wondered why at first, then the thought slowly slipped away. "Tell me about that other world?" he asked, his voice a little sluggish. "Please?" 

**Bedtime stories?** Darkness mocked him with just two words. **Oh, very well. Perhaps it will help you to understand a little better.**

Yuusuke didn't move, but simply listened, wanting to hear of that strange world. He didn't doubt the truth of what Darkness had said for a moment. Why would the source of such power lie to him? It wouldn't make any sense. 

**As I said, there were many mages and beings of power in that world,** Darkness began at last. **Some were of greater power and some were of less. There was one of them who was very much less than all the others, to the point they mocked him and said he could scarcely call himself one of their brotherhood. He swore that he would have his revenge on them all one day, and he plunged headfirst down the paths to darkness and shadow to gain the strength to accomplish that.**

Yuusuke listened as Darkness spoke, and was never certain when exactly he fell asleep. But sleep he did, and as he did, Darkness's words kept on weaving around him, and he found himself in dreams of a land long ago and far away, when power was but a breath away, and revenge even closer than that. 

And all for the low, low price of his soul. 

**To Be Continued**


	10. Dueling

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Dueling  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Otogi paged through the rule book a little carelessly. He'd already read it more times than he could remember in the four days since his arrival there, wanting to be certain that he remembered it all. His knack for games wasn't quite like Yuugi's or Atemu's, but he thought he could manage. He'd watched as many duels as he could during those days as well, and was fascinated by the whole concept. The more he watched and learned, the more he really wanted to start playing. 

"Having fun over there?" Otogi did not need to turn to know it was Fubuki who had asked the question. Not only did he recognize his voice, but Fubuki _did_ own his crystal and was his master. He'd recognize his master, no matter how much he hated the thought, any day of the week. 

"I think some of my friends would've loved this game," he said, looking at the book again. "I wish I could show it to them." 

"Maybe you can sometime." Fubuki replied, strumming on a ukulele he'd picked up from somewhere in his room. "You never know." 

Otogi smiled a bit, not really wanting to say that as far as he'd been able to tell, he'd never see his friends again. For everything to have changed so much, he had to have been sealed up for centuries. If not thousands of years or more. "Maybe." He looked through the book again, and thought he might possibly have a hang of the rules. "I think I might know how to work all of this." 

He wouldn't be a match for any of the duelists around here, though. He was intelligent enough to know _that_ much. Not for a while. Not without practice. 

Fubuki looked up with a grin. "Want to try? I've got enough spare cards so you can make yourself up a deck if you want." 

Otogi considered it for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Maybe this would also take his mind off of the nagging notions that he _knew_ Yuusuke somehow. The other hadn't come around very often in the last few days, but whenever he did, Otogi was certain if he'd been a cat, he would have arched his back and yowled. There was something wrong and it grew worse with every passing day. 

Thankfully, his attention was pulled away as Fubuki set several binders in front of him. "I keep the monster cards here, the spell cards here, and the trap cards here," he said, pointing to each set. "If you need any help, let me know?" 

"Sure." Otogi started to look through the various card sets, trying to find ones that would suit the slowly forming strategy in the back of his mind. He wasn't certain how effective it would be, but it was something to try. 

He also tried not to notice just how close Fubuki appeared to be to him. It wasn't any closer than he'd been since he'd first emerged from the crystal, but just as with Yuusuke, but in a much more pleasant way, he _reacted_ to Fubuki's presence. He was a little more relaxed, a little more inclined to enjoy himself, and every now and then he found himself admiring the lines of Fubuki's face. 

Otogi had never cared that much about what gender any lovers of his were. He'd had his share of men and women both, djinn and human, during the course of his life before his imprisonment. So finding himself attracted to Fubuki was only a bit of an annoyance because of the fact Fubuki was the current owner of his crystal. There weren't any rules against bound djinn and their masters having a relationship that stretched beyond the 'master and slave' situation, not that he knew of. But that didn't prevent him from being a little wary about the whole situation. 

As he worked through the cards, a tap came to the door. He didn't bother to look up; his magical senses hadn't reacted at all, which meant it was probably someone competely normal. He could by now figure out when it was one of Fubuki's friends, either by the way they knocked or just his reactions to it. And since his nonexistent cat fur hadn't wanted to raise up, it wasn't Yuusuke either. 

"Fubuki?" It was a quiet female voice, one he also didn't recognize. So, it wasn't Asuka or one of her two friends. He still had troubles telling them apart. "Do you have a minute?" 

"Sure, Kaori. What's the problem?" The name still wasn't familiar. Not that Otogi was very surprised by that. He couldn't recognize half the people here most of the time. It was a much larger school than he'd thought when he'd first seen it. 

"It's…I…" The girl stammered a little. "I don't know if I should be asking you this…" 

"Oh, come on!" Fubuki's smile was evident in his voice. "What is it? I won't tell." 

"All right…it's…it's about a boy…" Otogi curiously looked over enough to see that the girl's cheeks were bright red with embarassement. Fubuki only smiled. 

"You've come to the right person. The Wizard of Love, at your service!" Fubuki pulled her over to the side and started talking to her quietly, too low for Otogi to hear unless he used his magic. Which he wasn't going to do at the moment. This was obviously a private moment. 

_The Wizard of Love._ A smile tugged briefly at his lips. That was one thing he'd learned about Fubuki. He was in love with love. Otogi wasn't certain if that meant he would ever think about being in love with someone or not. And asking would possibly bring what he wasn't sure he wanted: an answer. 

A few minutes later, Kaori was gone, with a much more hopeful look in her eyes. Fubuki closed the door and wandered back over to pick up his instrument again, picking at the strings a little. 

"You do that a lot, don't you?" Otogi asked, going through the trap cards now. "Help people out like that?" 

"Someone has to," Fubuki shrugged casually and kept on playing a soft little tune. "Hey, Otogi, I was wondering something." Otogi made a little curious noise as he debated over a few cards. "Want to go out tonight? Just you and me." 

Otogi's head came up quickly and he stared at the young duelist in surprise. "What?" Had he just been asked out on a date? After what he'd been thinking, it was a little on the surprising side. 

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me. There's this perfectly glorious beach out there just waiting to get walked on once the sun goes down." Fubuki grinned at him mischeviously. "You can find the most interesting people there." 

Otogi began to smile a little. "That's true. Sure. I'd love to go out with you." 

Fubuki grinned widely at that. "As soon as it gets dark, then. How's that deck coming, anyway?" 

"Almost done." The black-haired djinn turned back to it. "I just want to be sure I've got everything in here I want in here?" 

"All right. We can play in here, if you want. Or we can get you a duel disk and we can go outside for it." 

Otogi thought about both of those options. On the one hand, playing in here meant that when he lost, there wouldn't be an audience. On the other, getting out and meeting even more people was always a plus. "We can go out." He grinned some. "Besides, I know _you_ love an audience." It had been hard to miss, given the duel that Fubuki had had against Ryou two days earlier. Ryou had won, but anyone could have told Fubuki was having fun no matter what. He was _also_ a deadly player when he wanted to be. Otogi was looking forward to facing that himself, with or without people watching. 

Fubuki nodded unashamedly, then jumped up and headed for his closet, rummaging around. "I think I have a spare around here somewhere that you can use." 

Otogi sorted through the rest of the cards quickly, making his final decisions, then shuffled them a few times, doing a few practice draws to see how the mix was looking. It would be hard to tell more accurately until he actually went through a duel, but he thought this was going to be an adequate deck. "All right, I think I'm ready." 

"Good!" Fubuki stepped back and pulled out a Duel Disk. "And here you go!" He blew some dust off of it and brushed a little more off. "I haven't needed to use this one in a while. It's the one I had when I first came here. I just kept it in case anything ever happened to that one." He motioned with one hand over to the Disk he usually used. 

Otogi took it and settled it on his arm. It almost felt as if it belonged there. He decided he'd give some thought to modifying it for himself later, if he could. But it would do for the moment. He picked up his deck and slid it into the holder, then turned to Fubuki. "Ready?" 

"Ready!" 

Together, the two of them left the room and headed down to the arena where the Obelisk Blue students usually had their pickup duels or practice duels or just any kind of duel that they wanted to have. Otogi had watched more than a few there recently, and he all but itched to teach some of those arrogant idiots what it meant to be a _real_ gamesman. Yuugi had taught him once, and he was willing to pass it on. After all, he _was_ older than they were, and it was the duty of the elders to teach the young, wasn't it? 

A few casual words thrown out by Fubuki, indicating they were going to duel, was all it took to have the arena at least half-full by the time they got there. Everyone liked seeing Fubuki duel, since he put on more of a show than just about anyone there. 

As they entered, Otogi found himself suddenly wanting to hiss and claw at something. He looked around, and saw Yuusuke sitting in the stands, sunglasses in place as they'd been since that afternoon when he'd shown up to get them. Otogi couldn't remember seeing him without them since then, no matter what. 

"Looks like a good crowd." Fubuki said, waving around happily to everyone. "Think you're ready for this?" 

"Guess we'll find out, won't we?" Otogi grinned at him, then walked with Fubuki to the center of the arena. "I hope _you're_ ready." 

Fubuki only grinned back at him. "Well, let's get this started. Shuffle my deck?" 

"Thought you'd never ask." He accepted Fubuki's deck in one hand and used the other to pull his own from his disk and handed it over. He shuffled quickly, enjoying the feeling of all those eyes on him. Having an audience just made this all the more interesting. 

But he also couldn't shake the feeling of _wrong_ that came from those other eyes, the ones behind Yuusuke's concealing glasses. The other had insisted he was fine now, he'd only needed to lay down for a while that day. But why did he keep wearing them, even at night? Otogi had seen him leaving the Obelisk Blue dorms after sunset once, and those glasses were still there. Something was very wrong. _Maybe I'll have to find the time to look into this._

Once they had both shuffled and returned their decks to their disks, each of them took up the proper spot in the arena. "Let's duel!" Fubuki declared, Otogi echoing him only a breath later. "You can have the first move," Fubuki went on to tell him. Otogi nodded, and drew his cards. 

_Yuusuke hasn't watched any of Fubuki's duels since I've been here,_ he realized suddenly as he started to look over what he'd drawn. _I've been to them all and he hasn't been there. So why now?_

He cast a quick glance up towards where Yuusuke sat, then turned his attention back to his cards. _Wrong doesn't even **cover** all of this._

**To Be Continued**


	11. Apprehension

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Apprehension  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Getting a chance to watch a duel in the Obelisk arena was always something Manjoume enjoyed doing. He couldn't actually duel there these days, but it didn't matter to him. He could win a duel anywhere, any time, and the surroudings didn't matter. He knew he was better than most of the Blues anyway. If they needed those fancy arenas to make themselves feel better, well, _he_ didn't. 

But he still liked to watch there, especially if it were someone that he knew could put on a good show. If there was one thing that you could count on Fubuki for, that was it. Manjoume suspected that he dueled more because it was a way to get all those eyes on him than anything else. Not that he wasn't great at it, of course. But that was what he suspected anyway. 

He could see other people he knew settling into their seats as well. Some were people he'd known when he'd been in Obelisk, and some weren't. Juudai and Shou were there, of course, with Hayato beside them. Those three weren't quite inseperable, but they came close to it once in a while. Ryou sat calmly two rows away from them, his attention full on the two people below. Rumor had it that he'd also had a hand in teaching Otogi what dueling was about. Manjoume hadn't spent that much time around the djinn. Just watching him and Fubuki together did something strange to him, and he wasn't sure what it was. So he tried not to watch that much. 

As he got himself settled, he saw someone else sitting just one row and a few feet away: Yuusuke. _Well. Haven't seen him around for a while._ From this view it was hard to be sure, but Manjoume thought that he had those sunglasses on as well. 

"Big brother, he scares me!" Ojama Yellow declared as he faded into being just above Manjoume's left shoulder. "There's something not right about him!" 

For once, Manjoume was inclined to agree with the little gremlin. Yuusuke just was _strange_ no matter any way you sliced it. And he'd been getting stranger in the last few days. Manjoume wasn't sure if it was his business entirely or not, but he could see something that just didn't set right with him. He could see that Yuusuke's attention was quite likely all on Otogi. 

Now that was weird in and of itself. If there were anyone there that he would've bet Yuusuke would be paying attention to, it would be Fubuki. They _were_ friends after all. Was Yuusuke jealous or something? That would make it even weirder. And there was no way that he was going to ask. 

But the duel was getting started, and he still hadn't seen Asuka. If he were going to sit by anyone, he wanted it to be her. Then he spied her coming in, Momoe and Junko behind her, and started to wave to her. She turned towards him, and his heart raced in joy to see her nod a bit and come towards him. She was actually there, she was coming over! 

Then she sat down between himself and where Juudai and his friends were, nodded towards them, and turned all of her attention towards the duel. 

Manjoume sank back down in his seat and grumbled under his breath. What did he have to do? Save the world a few times to get her attention? He wondered if even that would do it sometimes. She just didn't appear interested in _anyone_. Maybe he should just give it up. 

No. He wasn't going to do that. Not without a better reason than what he had. If she wasn't interested, then maybe she could _become_ interested. It wasn't as if they were on a time schedule or something. 

He'd figure it out later. Right now, there was an impressive duel about ready to start. He looked back to where Otogi and Fubuki were getting started. Otogi had the first turn, and he played defensively, as was wise given their respective levels of skill at the moment. One monster face down, in defense mode, and one other face down, a spell or a trap. A common enough beginning. Manjoume had used it more than once himself. 

As the duel unfolded, he could see that Otogi had some talent for the game. That was good; he'd probably be able to become a legitimate student for a while. If he stayed with Fubuki, he'd only need to stay until the end of the year, then he'd go wherever Fubuki did. He suspected they'd have some kind of cover story for that. They were already doing decently well at keeping Otogi's secret a secret. Even Juudai had managed to keep it quiet, though Manjoume wasn't all that certain of how. 

He thought carefully, ignoring the minor babblings of Ojama Yellow and his brothers. From what Fubuki had said, the only people on the island who knew what Otogi really was were himself, Fubuki, Sameshima, Juudai, Asuka, and Ryou. He wasn't sure when Asuka had found out, but he wasn't surprised that she had. She _was_ Fubuki's sister and he could no more keep a secret from her than he could walk on a ceiling. 

No, wait, Fubuki could walk on ceilings. Manjoume had seen him do it when he was in his so-called ninja outfit. But the general point still was that Fubuki didn't keep things from Asuka. 

"Big brother!" All three of the Ojamas were tugging at him now, and they looked worried about something. He hoped this was serious. They should know better than to bother him over something that wasn't. Not that they did. But they should. 

"What is it?" he muttered a little, not wanting to be heard talking to them. It was just as well there wasn't anyone really close enough to hear him either. He did not want to explain himself to anyone. 

"There's something _dark_ around him!" Ojama Yellow pointed at Yuusuke. "And it stinks, too!" 

Manjoume wasn't entirely certain of what to think about that, coming from an Ojama as it did. He'd never seen one of them take a bath, if it came down to it. But he didn't think that it was meant quite that way. "What are you talking about?" Couldn't they just come out and say it without all the dancing about? 

"He's not like he used to be." Ojama Black said, peering from over Manjoume's shoulder at the older duelist. "He's doing something really creepy and it's changing him." 

Well, that made a little more sense. "Is that so?" He wondered if he could figure out just what was going on. Maybe…a stray thought occurred, and he nodded slightly to himself. It could be dangerous, but he'd give it a shot when the opportunity presented itself. 

"Yeah!" Ojama Green nodded, popping up from behind Manjoume's other shoulder. "And I think I saw some blood on him!" 

Now that was getting beyond strange and into freaky. "Are you sure he didn't just cut himself by accident?" He kind of doubted it. His Ojamas weren't brain surgeons, but they weren't congenital idiots either, no matter what he liked to tell himself once in a while. 

"This was different." Yellow, Black, and Green all looked more serious than he'd seen them before. Yellow kept on talking. "Maybe you should try to follow him?" 

"Maybe you should be quiet." Manjoume snapped a bit. He'd seen Yuusuke starting to look behind him, and he focused his attention all on the duel, wanting to look like he'd never looked anywhere else. He and Yuusuke hadn't spoken much at all, but he didn't want the other getting any ideas. If he _was_ up to something that he shouldn't have been, then Manjoume would prefer that Yuusuke didn't know that he knew or suspected. 

He watched as Fubuki's Red Eyes Black Dragon stomped the last of Otogi's defenses into the ground, and trampled out the rest of his life points as well. Otogi was only smiling though. He'd put up a really good fight, as far as Manjoume himself could tell from what of the duel he'd seen in between the conversation with the Ojamas. 

"You are indeed talented, Otogi!" Sameshima came up from somewhere. Manjoume hadn't even seen him there. Chronos was right behind him, sniffing a little at the sight of non-Obelisks in the seats. He tried to tug a little at Sameshima's arm, but the principal had attention only for the djinn at the moment. "If you like, we can test you this afternoon and have you duel a proctor tomorrow, to determine your placement." 

Otogi gathered up his cards and put them back into the deck-holder on the disk. "Sure. I don't think I'd mind staying here." 

"Don't be so enthusiastic," Chronos snapped. "This is a rare privilege you are being granted to enter this late in the term!" 

"I know that." Otogi turned his emerald gaze onto the professor. "And I'm grateful for it." 

"Hm. You should be." Chronos grumped a little, then looked at all the rest of the spectators. "Don't you all have assignments to do? I can give out a few if you don't." 

Manjoume took his time getting out of the arena. Chronos had annoyed him enough in the past that he didn't want to give the impression of jumping to his word. But he still strolled out, trying his best to look more like this was his own idea than anything else. 

He glanced up as he walked, hoping to see Asuka, and saw something else. Or to be more precise, he saw someone else: he saw Yuusuke. The other was moving quietly away from the main buildings, and heading into the woods. Manjoume hesitated for a moment or two, then started to follow him. 

_If he asks, I'm just going for a walk,_ he decided. It wasn't that unusual, after all. But he didn't think Yuusuke would ask. As far as he could tell, the other hadn't even noticed he was there. For that matter, how could he tell that anyone was there with those sunglasses on? Chronos had tried to get him to take them off once, and Yuusuke had simply _looked_ at him until the professor had backed off. Manjoume hadn't thought anything of it at the time, especially since he'd only heard it second hand from Fubuki, but now, it was a little on the strange side. 

A slight hint of yellow popped up to one side, and before the Ojama could open his mouth, Manjoume seized him and stuffed him back down into the card. "All of you, stay quiet," he hissed slightly, moving behind a tree just in case Yuusuke heard him. "I don't want him knowing I'm here." 

When nothing more sounded from his deck, he peeked around the tree, and then started to follow Yuusuke again. The other hadn't gotten very far ahead of him, and Manjoume thought he knew where he was going. There was a clearing ahead, one that had only a few boulders and a deep, clear pool of water. He'd been there a few times on his rambles, but he didn't know of anyone else who went there on a regular basis. 

That was indeed where Yuusuke was going. Manjoume stopped at the edge of the trees and watched, curious and a little confused at the same time. It wasn't supposed to be this dark, was it? It was afternoon, but not that late in it. But regardless, he was having a few problems seeing. 

Yuusuke, on the other hand, moved as if it were high noon without a cloud in the sky. Manjoume rubbed at his eyes and frowned, trying to see what was going on. The darkness seemed at it's thickest around Yuusuke himself. This was getting more and more creepy. He knew the older duelist had been studying some strange things. There were rumors about what some of the elite students did in that special dorm of theirs. He'd hoped to have a chance to find out for himself, before all of his own troubles had begun. But maybe now… 

"Darkness." Yuusuke's voice was quiet, and filled with something Manjoume couldn't identify right away. "It is time for the taking of the vows." 

Yeah. This was freaky. But Manjoume couldn't look away and couldn't move away. He was going to watch this to the bitter end. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	12. Vows

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Vows  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Yuusuke could feel Manjoume watching him. He'd noticed the other's attention during the duel, and he wasn't surprised that the black-clad duelist had followed him into the woods. It made little difference. There was nothing that Manjoume could do to stop him, after all. 

To begin his servitude and bonding to the darkness, Yuusuke had to pledge himself to it first of all. There were three rites in all, and they began with this one, with his pledging to the shadows. Of the three, only one had to be conducted at a partiuclar time, and that was the last one itself, when he would become one with the Darkness. The others could take place at any time, and he'd chosen this night for the beginning. 

In point of fact, he was rather glad that Manjoume had followed him. There was nothing that indicated a witness would have any effect on what he was going to do, but if it came to pass that he needed help, Manjoume would be a perfect little tool. The boy thought so much of himself that it would be easy to convince him to do almost anything by appealing to his ego. It wasn't as if he had an intelligence to get in the way of it. 

This particular ritual required nothing more than for him to be in the proper area at the chosen time and to speak the correct words. He'd been rehearsing it for days now. The book had made everything seem very simple, but now that the time had come, he admitted, to himself, at least, a certain nervousness. 

Darkness was there, of course. He was seldom without the creature these days. Not that it mattered a great deal. They'd be all but the same being before very long anyway. He might as well get used to it. 

**Are you ready?** Darkness still wasn't visible as more than a flicker of a shape or a gleam of an eye. But Yuusuke could tell he was there. 

"I'm ready," he whispered, a mixture of fear and anticipation surging through him. He had reread the ritual just before he'd went to check out the duel. That had been Darkness's idea. He wanted to see what his djinn had been doing. Yuusuke had sensed something very like anger coming from the dark spirit, but hadn't yet asked what it was about. Maybe after the ritual, when he had proven he was going to go through with this… 

**Then begin.**

Yuusuke closed his eyes for a moment, drew in a deep breath, and then began to speak. "Here I stand, Fujiwara Yuusuke, human and mortal born. From this moment on, I reject the world of humanity and all that it stands for. I reject all but power and that which I claim as mine in the quest for power. I claim for myself the road of darkness and the way to the shadows and the rights of one who will take power for himself." 

As the words fell from his lips, Yuusuke could see even more of the darkness gathering around him. It grew stronger, or perhaps it was just his ability to see it that was stronger now. He wondered if the shadows had always been there and he'd just been too weak to see them until now. 

_I'll never be weak again!_ He declared to himself, even as the words of his pledge kept tumbling from his lips. He was no longer even certain of what he was saying, only that the words were binding him to something larger and far more powerful than himself. If that hadn't been what he wanted so much, he might have been a little concerned. 

But it was what he wanted, what he had searched and ached for all of his life and never found until now. So he kept on speaking, and when he could listen to himself, he found that while he knew what he was saying, he did _not_ know the language he was speaking. It was liquid and musical, but not the kind of happy song that Fubuki would have produced. This was a darker melody, one that told of tragedy and anguish, woe and grief beyond the ability of words to describe it. 

**It is the tongue of the shadows. A gift to those who take this first step.** Darkness said, and Yuusuke realized that the creature was speaking in that tongue. **No one who hears us can understand us now.**

Yuusuke grinned even more widely, though he did not stop spilling forth those strange words, and wondered what Manjoume, hidden behind the trees, thought of what he was hearing now. 

As if he'd read Yuusuke's mind, and the duelist had no idea still if he could or not, Darkness spoke again. **What shall we do with that little spy over there?**

Even as he asked, the vows Yuusuke was taking came to an end, and he drooped down to the ground, his energy suddenly gone as if he had never had a scrap in the first place. "I think," he murmured in the dark language, "that I'll need his help to get back to the Academy." 

**Something to cloud his mind, then?** Darkness appeared almost eager for something. 

"Yes," Yuusuke nodded slightly. He tried to get on his feet, and couldn't. Manjoume had to be taken care of. He was dangerous in a way, if only because of his stubbornness and his family wealth. He could hire people who could be very annoying, unless handled properly. Not to mention he was still friends with some of the more powerful people at the school, despite having been bumped down from Obelisk to Osiris. 

But this would handle him nicely. He turned his attention towards Manjoume and gasped out in a reasonable approximation of his normal voice, "Help…Manjoume…" 

To complete the illusion of utter helplessness, he reached out with one hand, pushed himself up with the other just a little, and then fell forward, gasping softly as the sunglasses clattered to the side. 

Only moments later, Manjoume was there, trying to help him up. "Fujiwara, what the hell are you trying to do?" He was gruff and he was annoyed, but he was also falling right into Yuusuke's trap. 

"I was…" Yuusuke's attention slipped briefly to Darkness and he nodded just a little. The spirit was now behind Manjoume, standing in the shadows of the trees, his own darkness merging with Manjoume's shadow. 

"You were what?" Manjoume frowned as he tried to get an arm underneath his schoolmate. He blinked a little, trying to clear his eyes as a strange sort of fog or haze tried to roll in. That couldn't be right; it wasn't the right time of day for something like that. But something was making it difficult for him to see clearly. For that matter, he wasn't certain if he were thinking clearly. 

He'd come out here for something. Had he followed Yuusuke? Or had they come together? He couldn't remember right now. Everything seemed to be blending together. He thought he heard a small voice, but not all that clearly. It wasn't saying anything he was wanting to hear, just calling his name over and over. Or something like 'big brother'. It didn't make any sense. 

**You came here with Yuusuke,** a voice whispered in his ear. Or in his mind. It was impossible to tell the difference. **You two just wanted to talk a little. About Fubuki and Otogi. You saw nothing extraordinary. You just talked to each other.** The voice hesitated for a moment, and if he'd been thinking clearly, he might have thought it smirked, if a voice could be said to smirk. **Then Yuusuke passed out. He hasn't been feeling well. Take him back to his room and let him rest. If he needs anything, you'll take care of it for him.**

Right. Manjoume nodded a little, though if it were to himself, Yuusuke, or that sly, sleek voice, he didn't know. He thought he'd be able to get Yuusuke back safely. The other already appeared to be recovering some. 

"You should really see the nurse about this," Manjoume said as he carefully worked to get Yuusuke on his feet. "You could have something serious." 

"I'm fine," Yuusuke breathed out softly. He had heard everything that Darkness had woven into Manjoume's mind, and tried not to sound too smug. The mindclouding wouldn't last forever, and the side effects were unknown, at least to him. Trying to force too much in there could break it far too soon. 

"Yeah, right. You're as stubborn as Juudai." Manjoume rolled his eyes and half-carried, half-dragged Yuusuke away from the clearing. "So, you really think they're falling for each other?" 

Yuusuke stifled his smirk. This had to be far, far too easy. He'd suspected Manjoume's mind would be easy to play with. "I wouldn't be surprised at all. You can tell there's something between them. I've never known Fubuki to spend that much time around someone, for one thing. Even when he's showing off for the girls, he doesn't really talk to them that much. He smiles, signs a few autographs, and goes off somewhere else." 

"Huh. Yeah, you're right." Manjoume nodded thoughtfully. He knew that he cared a great deal about Asuka, and would very much like to date her if he got the chance. But there was also something about Fubuki that was very much alluring as well. He hadn't thought about it a great deal, but it was there whether he had or not. 

He tried to think about that to keep himself occupied as he pulled and carried Yuusuke towards the school buildings. The closer they got, the more strength the older teen seemed to reacquire, and soon he was walking as if nothing had happened in the first place, albeit with the slightest drag to his steps. 

"You like Fubuki, don't you?" Yuusuke said as they came to one of the paths that led through the Academy. Manjoume took a step back automatically and shook his head. 

"What are you talking about? He's my friend! My teacher!" He didn't know why he was reacting the way he was. Surely Yuusuke hadn't meant anything _other_ than liking Fubuki in those platonic ways, had he? 

Yuusuke only smiled a little. Manjoume thought vaguely it wasn't the nicest smile he'd ever seen, but what did he know about this guy and how he smiled? "Go on back to your dorm and get a bit of rest yourself. You don't want to catch what I could have, do you?" 

"No…no, I don't." Manjoume blinked a little, wondering why he felt so tired all of a sudden. He didn't bother with a farewell, but just turned and started down the path that led eventually to the Osiris Red dorms. 

Yuusuke watched him go and tried not to smirk too visibly. There were people around who hadn't been mind-clouded and he couldn't take the chance someone would ask questions that did not need to be answered. With an ease he could not have had hours earlier, he cloaked himself in a shred of shadow. No one would see him or hear him as he made his way up to his room. 

He passed by Fubuki's door, and smirked a little. The attraction that Manjoume had for the showman duelist was easy to see. Either of the Tenjoin siblings could easily worm their way into his heart with barely the flicker of an eyelash. It simply suited Yuusuke's purposes at the moment to encourage Manjoume to want Fubuki for himself. That could come in very handy in the very near future. 

**Excellent, indeed.** Darkness whispered to him. **He will indeed be useful.**

"He can get the djinn's crystal for us," Yuusuke murmured in the shadow speech, going on to his own room. He really didn't want to hurt Fubuki. Humiliate him just a tiny bit by beating him in a duel, maybe. And that wasn't as much of a driving goal as it had been before all of this. The power was much more attractive than anything else. 

He stretched out on the bed, the lights off. They were superflous now, and probably always would be for him. He closed his eyes and rested. Today had begun a new life for him, and he wanted to regain his strength and enjoy it to the fullest as quickly as he could. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	13. Trials

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Trials  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

It had been a long time since Otogi had done anything like a test like this. He wasn't very worried about it. The questions could all be answered from the rulebook anyway, and he had that all but memorized. 

_I wonder if I can read some of Fubuki's schoolbooks once I'm done with this._ He hadn't yet had a chance to study dueling history, but he'd caught a few names that sounded familiar, and he wanted to know if he was right or not. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be, either. Something would be wrong no matter which way things fell out. 

At the moment, he was still just a trifle more concerned about this particular test. Or at least that was what had most of his attention. He moved his pen down the paper quietly, thinking over the answers before marking them down. Chronos was the only other person in the room, and he was muttering over something to himself. Otogi didn't pay that much attention to him. 

"Professor Chronos?" It was a quiet voice, and Otogi glanced up a bit to see someone he'd only seen from a distance a few times before. He held a fat orange and brown cat in his arms and was petting it. 

"Don't bring that monster in here!" Chronos shrieked, leaping up from his chair and backing away. "Whatever you want to talk about, you can leave it outside!" 

"Pharaoh isn't going to hurt anything." The other protested, still petting. "I wanted you to know that I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days. Could you watch my classes for me?" 

Chronos eyed the other a bit warily. "What are you going to be doing, Daitokuji?" 

"I have a special project that I must attend to very closely in the elite dorm," the other replied. "If I don't, something very dangerous could happen." 

The other nodded a little, plainly not thrilled. "Oh, very well. I'll watch the little monsters. Now take _your_ monster out of here! I'm conducting an important special exam!" 

Daitokuji turned towards Otogi, who nodded a trifle out of politeness. "I see," the teacher said. Otogi recalled that he was the one who was in charge of Osiris Red. As their eyes met, something else intruded itself upon the djinn's awareness: this person was sick. Dying, in fact. Or maybe…with that kind of aura… 

_This place just gets stranger and stranger._ Otogi scarcely noticed as Daitokuji left, his cat still in hand, and Chronos settled back into his chair, mumbling about rabies and wild beasts that shouldn't be in a proper school setting. _Now they're hiring the dead to teach._ It wasn't his business, though he did wonder just how Daitokuji was pulling it off. Maybe he'd ask sometime, if he got the chance. Magic like that was rare in this time and place, from what he'd seen. 

He worked on the rest of his test, and finished it quickly, handing it over to Chronos. "Anything else I need to do?" he asked curiously. 

"Not at the moment. You will be informed of the results." 

Otogi nodded, then headed out of the room. Before he'd taken four steps out of there, Fubuki was right beside him, grinning his usual cheerful grin. 

"So how did it go?" 

"I'm pretty sure I passed," Otogi shrugged. "They're going to let me know once it's graded." Really, if he _didn't_ pass, he would still stay at the Academy. He didn't have a choice on it. He would just have to make arrangements so no one who didn't know what he was would notice that he was there at all. 

"Good!" Fubuki wrapped an arm around Otogi's shoulders carelessly, and Otogi had to check briefly to be certain he hadn't floated off of the ground at how good that felt. "It's getting late, you know. Want to skip dinner and just go for that walk?" 

Otogi grinned some at him. "Who said we had to skip dinner? I can make us something." 

"You can cook?" Fubuki asked, blinking in that very adorable fashion of his. Otogi chuckled and held out his hand palm up. A whisper of green sparkles flew by, and a plate of some of his favorite foods appeared. 

"I can do better than cook," he said. "Or do you keep forgetting what I am?" 

Fubuki laughed and stole a piece off of the plate, nibbling it. "This is really good, too! Are you sure you can't cook?" 

"I'm sure. The magic makes certain whatever I do, especially for whoever owns the crystal, is of the highest quality." Otogi told him. He closed his hand, and the plate vanished, though the piece Fubuki had taken remained with him. "I'll bring it back once we're someplace private." 

Warm eyes smiled at him, and Otogi had to be certain _again_ he wasn't floating. Fubuki simply had that effect on him. _I like him a lot._ That didn't quite cover it, not as much as he really wanted it to. But it would do for now. 

The two of them wandered through the building and out the door, then down to the beach. There were other people here and there, as was usual at the Academy, and some of them waved, getting a wave and a grin from Fubuki back. Some of the girls looked a little put out by his company, and Otogi couldn't help but grin at them as well. If Fubuki had been interested in them, he would have _been_ with them. And since he wasn't…well, that wasn't his problem now, was it? 

The moon wasn't up yet, but there was still light in the western sky as they drew nearer to the beach. A few stars had kindled, but Otogi was more and more conscious of Fubuki's presence with every step they took, and paid far more attention to him than he did to anything else at the moment. 

"Over there's a really good place to get in some surfing," Fubuki said, motioning to one area of the ocean. "The waves are always awesome there." 

"Maybe we can do some of that sometime." Surfing wasn't something he'd done much of, but everyone deserved a change now and then, even a djinn. 

"I'd like that." Fubuki bounced on along the beach, and Otogi kept pace with him as the other pointed out every other spot that was good for something. He couldn't have been more a child of the water if he'd actually had fins. Otogi pondered transforming him into a merman, if Fubuki would let him, just to see what he thought of that. 

Perhaps half a mile from where they'd started, Fubuki came to a stop. A pretty little cove was there, with a wide stretch of clean beach, and waves touched by the dying light of the sun lapping onto it. Trees grew several yards back from the sand, stretching out into the deeper forest. It was one of the more exquisite places Otogi had seen in quite some time. 

"What do you think?" Fubuki waved a hand, with the kind of grin that clearly said this was a place he was proud of. Perhaps as proud as if he'd made it himself. 

"It's beautiful!" Otogi declared, looking all around over and over again. There wasn't a single flaw he could find anywhere about this cove. It appeared to have been made just that instant, and just for the two of them. 

"I thought so too. I've only shown it to Asuka before." Fubuki threw himself down on the beach and stared up at the flame-touched clouds and the setting sun. "And now you." 

Otogi smiled, sitting down beside him. "I'm glad you did." Despite all the worries, concerns, and everything he didn't know that he wanted to, he felt it was right to put all of that aside for now. Learning any of the answers could wait, just for a while. 

With a wave of his hand, he brought into being the kind of meal that he was certain Fubuki would love. The way the other's eyes lit up at it confirmed that. "Anything you want, I can get for you," he said softly. "And I think I'd do it even if you didn't have the crystal." 

Fubuki smiled back at him, his heart in his eyes like always. "I don't even think about that most of the time. I can't imagine not having you around now." 

Otogi stared down at the white sand beneath them for a moment. "I hated being trapped in there. I still hate it. I want to find a way to be free of it, and I _will_." Then he looked up at Fubuki. "But don't think if I do, that I'll be that easy for you to get rid of." 

"Good." Fubuki's hand slid over to touch his own, caressing lightly past the scars of cold iron. Those scars always pained, if only by the mildest of twinges. But with Fubuki's touch, Otogi found he could forget the pain, ignore it for the length of the contact. "Because I don't want to be rid of you." 

"Good." Otogi murmured softly. 

Neither of them said anything else for the next few minutes, being too busy eating the repast Otogi had created for them. Fubuki ate one-handed for the most part, his other hand still touching Otogi's unless he absolutely needed it for something. Otogi didn't mind at all. 

"What was it like, where you lived before?" Fubuki asked after they'd eaten their way through most of the meal. "Was it like this?" 

"Not really. Some of the technology was the same, but magic was much more in use. Some of my best friends were studying it." He hoped that they at least had had _some_ notion of what had happened to him. "I still can't figure out how long I was in there. It had to have been a while for everything to have changed so much." 

Fubuki frowned a little. "You know, I'm no genius, but I'm beginning to think you weren't in there as long as you think you were." 

"What?" That was something that he hadn't thought of that much. He _had_ to have been in there for eons if there such things as this new game, so close to what the priests and sorcerers had done, was commonplace. 

"It's just a feeling." Fubuki shook his head and shrugged. "You should really ask Misawa about that. He's the one to go to if you've got science kinds of problems." 

Otogi wasn't certain if this _was_ a science problem or not, but he would check with Misawa when he had the chance. The boy did have an amazing brain for facts and figures, and if history was also included, then he should be able to learn something. There would be time enough for that tomorrow. Tonight was for Fubuki. 

"My friends would've liked you," he said at last, thinking back a little. "I'm sure you all would've gotten along really well." 

"I get along with most people," Fubuki told him. Otogi had certainly noticed that. "But I don't think I would've liked the guy who put you in that thing." 

Otogi's fists clenched briefly. "Neither do I." He all but spat the name out. "Darkness." 

"What was he like?" Fubuki asked a bit curiously. Otogi considered how to answer before he actually did. 

"Arrogant. Cruel. Ruthless." He chose the words carefully, when what he really wanted to call him was every piece of profanity he had ever heard in every language he knew or could think of or had heard of even vaguely. "There were all kinds of stories about him, most of which I didn't pay any attention to. I think some of them said he didn't used to be like that, that he was a very unskilled mage who could maybe light a candle on his best day, if he tried hard enough and the wind was blowing just right. But then something happened. No one knows what, and from then on, he was one of the most powerful sorcerers the world ever knew. I can't believe there isn't _some_ record of him somewhere around here." 

Fubuki said nothing for a moment or two, then finally, "Maybe because he never existed here?" 

**To Be Continued**


	14. Clues

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Clues  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"What are you talking about?" Otogi stared at Fubuki, not quite getting what he was aiming at. How could Darkness have _not_ existed here? This was his world… 

At least… 

"Look, I'm not really sure how all of this works, but I figure if there was someone like Darkness around here, we'd know about him. But until you said something, I'd never heard of him, and neither has anyone else." Fubuki waved his hands a little as he tried to explain. "But I know you wouldn't lie about that. So, the only thing I can think of is that you're not where you were. Some other world or something like that." He shrugged some. "It's just a feeling I've got. I might be wrong." 

Otogi opened his mouth, then closed it again. As strange as it seemed, the explanation made some kind of sense. "Oh." He finally said, dropping his gaze to stare at the pale sand beneath them both. He didn't quite know how to deal with this possibility. 

"You know who we should ask about this?" Fubuki went on. Otogi shrugged a little. "Misawa. He's just about the brightest guy I know. If anyone can help you figure all of this out, I bet it's him." 

Fubuki had mentioned him just a bit before. Otogi ran his fingers through the sand again, thinking. "All right," he decided. He was tired of not knowing, when one really got down to cases. He wanted to know where he was, _when_ he was, and if anything he really wanted to get was possible. 

A second later, Fubuki was on his feet and he reached out a hand to Otogi. When he pulled the djinn up, Otogi moved a little closer, more out of instinct, and he realized almost a moment too late that he was _very_ close to Fubuki. Much closer than he'd thought. For a moment, the two of them stared into each other's eyes. 

_Magical._ A thought of awe. 

_Wonderful._ A thought of hope. 

The kiss was light and breathy, the faintest dusting of lips across lips, but it held a promise of more when there was more time and more answers to many things. 

Neither of them felt the need to say anything else as they headed away from the beach and towards the Ra Yellow dorms where Misawa lived. Otogi all but shimmered with a mixture of happiness and anticipation. Fubuki bounded along in his usual happy way, but perhaps a little more intensely happy. 

"Misawa!" Fubuki knocked on the door. "We need to talk to you!" 

The door opened, and the younger student stood there, one eyebrow raised a bit curiously. "You do?" Fubuki didn't come to Ra that often, at least not that anyone knew about, and when he did, he usually didn't bring along a guest. 

"Yeah. And it's really important that we keep this a secret," Fubuki said, moving past Misawa and into his room. As soon as Otogi was in the room, the djinn closed the door very firmly and laid a hand on it, sending out a surge of magic so it would _stay_ closed. People coming near it with intent to knock or bother Misawa would have a sudden urge to go somewhere else for a couple of hours. 

Misawa himself turned to look at the two of them, his arms folded over his chest. "And this had better be very good," he said calmly. "I was in the middle of studying." 

"Otogi's a djinn and we need to figure out if he's from this world or some other world somehow." Fubuki said cheerfully. Misawa frowned darkly. 

"I don't like jokes like that, Fubuki." 

Otogi shook his head a little. "He's not joking. I can prove it to you if you want." Seeing the disbelief still on Misawa's face, he performed one of his usual tricks. He took hold of both Misawa and Fubuki by the arms, not giving either of them a chance to protest, and a moment later they stood on the very top of the Ra dormitory building. "Is that going to convince you, or should I find someplace farther to take you? The moon could be very nice this time of year." 

Misawa stared all around, then back at him, his eyes a little wild. He was a man of science, and he believed direct evidence more than anything. This was some very direct evidence. "Very well. Take us back to my room now." The unspoken 'please' was acknowledged, and they were back there in the blinking of an eye. 

"So, are you going to help us?" Fubuki asked, having been no more bothered by the trip than he would have been if they'd walked down to the beach. Hanging out with Otogi tended to do that to a person if they did it long enough. Or maybe it was just Fubuki himself. 

Misawa settled into his chair, his hands closing a little more firmly around his laptop than they might have without Otogi's little demonstration. "Precisely what were the circumstances of your arrival here, and why do you think this world might not be your own?" It was always best to start at the beginning, after all. 

"I was sealed into the crystal that Fubuki has by a being known as Darkness. Fubuki hasn't ever heard of him, and we're going on the theory right now that I'm from a different world because of that. He was _very_ famous where I'm from, to the point his reputation should have lasted no matter how long I was in the crystal, and I don't even know how long that was. Time perception in there is almost impossible." Otogi said. 

Misawa frowned some, then shook his head. "I've never heard of Darkness either, not as a name or as a person." He turned to his laptop and began to type something. "I can run a search, but I can't promise anything at the moment. What else can you tell me? Where did you come from? What was the name of the place? What was the year?" 

"Khemet was what the people there called it," Otogi told him. "Some people called it 'Egypt'. That's not really where I'm _from_, but the djinn don't have a name for where we live that is really pronounceable in most human languages. But it's where I was living when I was captured by Darkness, and that was in Pharaoh Atemu's seventh year of being Pharaoh." 

Both of them turned to look at him with the most incredulous expressions he'd ever seen on any human face before. "Pharaoh Atemu?" Misawa managed to get hold of his voice first. "You knew him?" 

"Of course. He and Yuugi were two of my best friends, once we got some misunderstandings cleared up." Otogi shrugged, not sure why this was surprising them so much. 

"Yuugi…you mean _Mutou_ Yuugi?" Fubuki still didn't appear to be able to say anything at the moment, so it was Misawa who had asked that. 

"Well, it was pronounced differently, but that was the name of their family. It wasn't used that often," Otogi said. Their surprise still confused him some. "What's so strange about that?" 

Misawa stared at him a little more, then turned to his laptop and started to type again in a fresh window. What he pulled up a few moments later set both Otogi and Fubuki staring at the screen before them in shock. 

Because it was Otogi himself on the screen, dressed in some kind of blue outfit that he couldn't remember ever having worn before. "Who the hell is that?" he asked, pointing one slightly accusing finger at it. "And why do they have my face?" 

"That is Otogi Ryuuji. The creator of a game called Dungeon Dice Monsters. He's been friends with Mutou Yuugi since they were in high school together." Misawa told him. "And according to this, he was at a gaming convention in America just a few days ago." 

Two words broke forth simultaneously from Otogi and Fubuki. "Say _what_?" 

"This is just a theory still, because I don't have enough evidence to back it up," Misawa said, looking from the image on the screen to the two before him. "But I believe there is at least a chance you are correct. You are not in the same universe that you came from originally. For one thing, in this world, Pharaoh Atemu has been dead for nearly three thousand years. But Mutou Yuugi is a famous figure of the modern gaming world, and there is another Otogi Ryuuji, one very different from you. His birth records and school history are available, and he would be approximately twenty-six years old right now, give or take a few months." 

Otogi frowned; he knew he was much older than that, though in effect he was still a teenager, by djinn terms. Another him…he wasn't sure how he liked that idea. A him that was _human_ as well. Very strange. 

"So how did I wind up here?" he wondered, more to himself than anything else. But Misawa took up the question anyway. 

"That I don't know, as of yet. There's too much information that we don't have at the moment. But it is at least theoretically possible that your friends in your world are still there." 

_Still alive. I could go back there. I could go back home._ To a world where he understood everything, and where he could very well be being missed. As much as he liked this place, it was still different, and it was…it had… 

It had Fubuki. It had the new friends he was making and the game he was learning, that he already loved so much. 

And he knew he didn't know how to get back there, because he had no idea of how he'd gotten _here_ in the first place. He had never heard of a djinn who could cross worlds. Granted, he'd spent a lot of time away from his family, but he thought maybe that was something that would have been brought up somewhere along the line. 

"Thank you," was all he could bring himself to say at the moment. He didn't think he needed to tell Misawa to keep this to himself. The quiet intelligence in the teenager's eyes told him that the other already had that much common sense. 

"If you need more help, let me know," Misawa said as Otogi and Fubuki both turned towards the door. "I'll keep on researching and see if I can find anything that might be able to help you." 

Otogi nodded a little, but said nothing else until he and Fubuki were already out of the Ra building. "You were right," he said quietly. "Darkness doesn't exist here. He's probably still back in that world…in _my_ world, causing trouble for my friends." 

"If your Pharaoh Atemu is anything like the one I've studied about in history, then I don't think you're going to have much to worry about," Fubuki told him firmly. "He saved the world more than once." 

"Yeah, that's Atemu for you." Otogi couldn't help but smile at the memory. "He and Yuugi were…are…some of the best friends I've ever had. They were about the only ones who knew what I really am. I always thought Bakura and Ryou knew as well, but they never really said. Ryou was studying to be a wizard, so he could've picked it up." 

He kept on talking about his friends, his mind ranging all over the years they'd spent together as he did. Fubuki listened, occasionally asking questions that showed he really was paying attention and not just being polite. Otogi answered to the best of his ability, growing more and more relaxed with each word that he spoke. 

Then they were at their room again, and he found that he'd run out of things to say for the moment. Fubuki closed the door behind them, and they stood there, looking at one another just a little awkwardly. 

The first kiss had been more or less spontaneous, a result of the moment. This one wasn't planned that much more, but it was deeper and fuller all the same. Otogi was very far from the place he had always considered his home, but now that he was in Fubuki's arms, he didn't think he ever wanted to leave. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	15. Frustration

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Frustration  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Manjoume all but broke down the door to Sameshima's office when he threw it open and stalked inside. A tiny part of his furious mind was at least thankful no one else was there but the principal, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He was too angry at the moment. 

"Is there something you'd like to discuss?" Sameshima turned towards him as he entered, closing a folder on his desk at the same time. "I presume that's why you're here." 

"That jerk Fujiwara is up to something." Manjoume spat the words out. "I don't know what exactly, but it's _something_." 

Sameshima raised one eyebrow cautiously. "Do tell me more." His voice was calm, as it always was, but Manjoume thought he looked just a little interested. 

"He was acting kind of weird after Otogi and Fubuki's duel yesterday," Manjoume started. "So I followed him up into the woods and I saw him doing something. It was really weird, like he was…" He hesitated, not really certain of how to describe what he had seen. Some of it was still blank in his mind, even now. But he did his best. "If this were some kind of weird horror movie, I'd say he was selling his soul to evil." 

The principal made a noncommital noise. "And what else happened?" 

"I went over to see what was going on, and he did _something_ to me." Manjoume growled, his fists clenching just at the memroy. "I couldn't think straight." Flashes of what he was certain were false memories whipped through his mind, and he fought them off as hard as he could. He was Manjoume Jun, Manjoume _Thunder_, and there wasn't anyone who was going to run his mind except him! 

Ojama Yellow peeked out of his card and floated up to brush against him a little. "Are you sure you're all right, big brother?" 

That was something else whatever Fujiwara had done had affected. He hadn't been able to hear his deck again until just that morning. Though it had been a little refreshing to get some sleep, part of him had missed their noisy antics. Not that he would go out of his way to admit this to anyone, especially himself. 

"What, exactly, do you mean?" Sameshima asked, a trifle more concern in his voice. "Did he hurt you?" There were rules to the school, after all, and hurting another student physically wasn't allowed. 

"Not like that." Manjoume shook his head and tried to think about it again. It still wasn't the easiest thing to do, but he wasn't going to let Fujiwara get away with it. "I think he did something to my head so I wouldn't know _what_ he was doing. I got him back to the dorms, and he…" He frowned more, trying to work his way through the hints of mist and miasma in his mind that still clogged up certain of the memories. "He wanted me to do something, I think, but I can't remember what." 

Sameshima hmmed a little. "I see. Well, at the moment, the only evidence that is available isn't enough to warrant bringing any kind of action against him. Even if he's done so, selling one's soul to evil isn't covered in the student charter." 

"It should be, if idiots are going to try to brainwash other people around here." Manjoume muttered, pacing around a little. "So you're saying I can't do anything." He wanted Fujiwara expelled! And possibly with a few good swift kicks to the head beforehand. 

"I'm saying that we need more evidence before anything can be done." Sameshima looked at him as he made a slight show of arranging the folders and papers on his desk. "We need someone who can prove that what he's doing is harmful to himself and to others, and who can get solid evidence of it existing in the first place." 

Manjoume turned towards him, eyes narrowing slightly. He thought he knew what Sameshima was talking about. Before he could even think of beginning to open his mouth to agree or disagree, a thousand ideas began to surge through his mind. 

No one else even knew this was happening. It was all up to him to save Duel Academia, even if it meant he was risking his life or worse. 

The amount of people who'd be _grateful_ to him once they found out was staggering. Including…Asuka. He grinned a bit to himself just at the thought of that. If he really did have to save the world, or at least the school, to get her attention, then fate was handing him the opportunity on a silver platter. 

And he could show up Fujiwara at the same time. The idiot had thought he could confuse and manipulate Manjoume's mind? He'd done nothing but make an enemy out of the black-clad duelist, and Manjoume was going to prove this to him before this whole mess was done, no matter how long it took. 

"I think you've got the right idea," he told Sameshima, grinning some. The principal nodded briefly. 

"It would be best if no one else knew what was going on. Given that whatever he's doing, he's also keeping it from the school administration, this could be extremely dangerous. Are you certain you want to do this?" 

"Of course I am!" Manjoume all but spat the words back at him. "And I've already got some plans." He patted his deck and smirked to himself. Yeah, there was no way that Fujiwara Yuusuke would know what was going on until it actually hit him…and no way he'd be able to do anything about it until it was too late. And probably not even then. 

Sameshima nodded again. "If you learn anything that could be useful, I will need to know about it as soon as possible." 

"Right, right." Manjoume turned towards the door, nodding as he did. "I'll let you know." His mind was far more filled with daring escapades and bringing the crushing weight of his revenge down on the older duelist than anything else at the moment. 

He left the office, Ojama Yellow still floating by his ear, and headed outside. He wanted to get in some more thinking, and the best place to do that was as far from this place as possible. There were less chances that he'd be seen by anyone and have to talk to them, too. 

"Hey, Manjoume!" Well, there went that idea. Juudai, Shou, and Hayato were coming towards him. He ground his teeth, thinking. If he were going to be going undercover, then he'd have to act like whatever it was that Fujiwara had done to his brain was still working. The trouble with that was, he couldn't remember any of those instructions having to do with _these_ guys. Which meant he didn't have any really viable excuses for just leaving them. Other than the fact he tried not to hang out as much as he could, for the most part. 

"What do you want?" he grumbled. At least this would also work in his favor. If he didn't act any differently towards _them_, then they would be amazed and in awe when he proved how much smarter than they were he really was. Not that it was that big of a shock to him. He'd seen tables that could outwit Juudai. 

"We were going to go down to the beach and do some swimming. Want to come?" Juudai asked as they got a little closer. "It's a pretty nice day, after all. Too nice to sit around inside and do homework!" 

Manjoume couldn't say he was surprised, and he wouldn't have even if he could. Because he wasn't. This was Juudai, after all. "No, I've got some stuff I've got to do." Not that taking a cool dip wouldn't be a really good idea. Maybe it would get his mind a little clearer, and he could figure out the best way to do everything he needed to do. 

"Aww, come on!" Juudai slung an arm around Manjoume's shoulders, and the other jumped, still not used to the contact no matter how often Juudai would do this. He was almost like Fubuki sometimes, always needing to touch people. 

_Fubuki._ A shiver shot through his body, and he recalled something more of what Fujiwara had said. No, not quite what he'd said, but what he'd implied: that there was more to his liking of Fubuki than just as a friend and a teacher. 

He couldn't deny that it had been a little fun to have that walk with him, the day that they'd found Otogi's crystal. What would it have been like if they had finished it? It could have went on for a while, and they could have ended up somewhere on a beach under the moon and stars. That was a very pleasant image, really. 

"Manjoume?" Juudai poked his shoulder. "Are you all right? You're looking kind of strange. I mean, stranger than usual, even for you." 

"It's nothing!" Manjoume snapped himself back into the present moment with a nearly audible, at least to himself, mental jerk. "Fine. Let's go." Going near the water probably wasn't the best idea with Fubuki on the brain, but he hoped he could wash the other out of there. 

_Fujiwara suggested that. He **wants** me to like him like that. Or to think I do, anyway._ He paid no attention to whatever Juudai and his two attendants were babbling about as they headed towards the beach. Ojama Yellow floated ahead, chattering about something or other with Hane Kuriboh. If the little gremlin knew what was good for it, it wasn't going to say anything about Manjoume's new little assignment. The trouble with that was, he couldn't always be sure that Yellow knew what was good for it. 

So, the next step was to figure out exactly why Fujiwara wanted that. What could he get out of it? Manjoume following him on whatever little trip he'd been going on had been more spur of the moment than anything else, so it couldn't have anything to do with something _Manjoume_ could get him. And Fujiwara and Fubuki were friends anyway, so just about anything the little jerk could've wanted from Fubuki, he could have anyway. 

Except. 

One little thing. 

The answer burst into his mind like the thunderbolts he drew his favorite nickname from. He didn't know _why_ and he didn't know how that little ritual of pledging he'd witnessed factored in, but he knew _what_ now. 

Fujiwara wanted Otogi, and since it was growing rather plainly obvious to anyone with a set of eyes and a brain behind them, which in Manjoume's opinion was perhaps four people on the entire island, himself included, that _something_ was going on between Otogi and Fubuki…well, there was going to have to be something done about Fubuki. 

Manjoume scarcely paid attention to the fact that he and the others were down at the beach now. He threw himself under a convenient palm tree and stared grumpily out at the waves. 

_Using me to get Fubuki out of the way so he can get to Otogi._ That made him want to scream and throw things. Preferably large heavy things, right at Fujiwara's head. 

"Manjoume!" Juudai dashed over to him and stared down at him. "Come on! Don't you want to go swimming?" 

"No, I don't. I came down here with you, isn't that enough?" Manjoume grumped. He was feeling a little hot, mainly due to his black coat, but he could put up with it. Now that he'd realized what was going on, he really didn't think he could deal with swimming in the same ocean that Fubuki did all the time. He was still confused and unsure about a lot of things, and he wanted time to think them all through. 

Juudai, however, wasn't going to take no for an answer. He grabbed Manjoume by an arm and started to haul him up. "If you don't come on, I'm going to throw you in there by myself!" 

"You couldn't throw a wet towel into the washing machine," Manjoume grumped. As much as he didn't want to, it looked as if he were going to have to swim, just to get Juudai to leave him alone. 

Well, there _were_ worse ways to pass the time. Pity he couldn't think of any at the moment. 

**To Be Continued**


	16. Exploration

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Exploration  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Darkness was seldom this pleased about events. Ever since he'd lost the one body that he'd been possessing in that other world, he'd been somewhat in a snit, to put it politely. In the space between universes where he preferred to remain, as it was much darker there than anywhere else, time flowed differently than it did anywhere else. Though to be more accurate, time did not _actually_ move there at all. In the deep darkness of the shadows, nothing changed and nothing moved. 

The point to that was that for Darkness, it had been both forever and a snap of the fingers since he'd had a body to truly use for himself, and he wanted another one. Finding Yuusuke in this world had been a blessing he hadn't truly ever expected to come across. But to find that the djinn he'd wanted and trapped had ended up _here_…that was more than a blessing. He believed in power and victory more than fate or destiny, but he was more than willing to believe that since Otogi had arrived here, in a world with _such_ a suitable host body awaiting Darkness himself, that something had had a hand in it. 

He neither knew nor cared what it was, only that it was giving him the opportunity to regain everything that he'd had in that world and then some. 

If he were capable of sleeping while without a body, he would have lulled himself into rest with visions of the entire world wrapped in the chaos and the fire that fueled his existence. More than just that world. _All_ worlds, eventually. Why stop with just one world after all? All of creation would fall to him. 

Never let it be said that the ambitions of Darkness were small or puny. 

But there was still so much to do before he could achieve his dreams. Yuusuke had to finish the incantations that would prepare his body to be Darkness's host. The foolish boy still didn't realize what was actually going to happen when he ended the trio of spells. Darkness could see inside of his mind, and he knew what Yuusuke expected to have happen: that Darkness would disappear, giving all of his power to Yuusuke, perhaps appearing only as a voice in his mind. 

In point of fact, the reverse was going to be far more true. Only Yuusuke wouldn't even be a voice. He would have only moments to realize how wrong he had been. Darkness looked forward to that moment with all of his twisted soul. 

Wherever shadows were, Darkness could be, and now he strolled through the darkness of Duel Academia, searching for anything that could be of assistance to himself. He was drawn briefly to where Juudai and his friends were playing, and watched them thoughtfully. There was something about that boy that was intensely confusing. He gave off the impression of not having a single thought in his head that wasn't focused around having fun and a good time with dueling, but Darkness was sensitive to more than just the physical. There was something _there_, something that he did not recognize and did not like in the slightest. 

It felt oddly pure, but it had nothing to do with the light at all. Darkness curled up his lip at the very thought of light itself. How could anyone with any sense like that horrible, destructive _thing_? 

He didn't spend that much time watching Juudai. As much as he enjoyed darkness, and _was_ Darkness in all truth, being around Juudai honestly made him nervous. There was something asleep in that boy and there was no way that _he_ was going to wake it up until he actually knew what it was and how to get rid of it quickly. Darkness may well have been insane by the standards of modern humanity, but he wasn't stupid. 

As he was leaving to find another spot of the school to observe, he caught sight of that boy whose mind he had manipulated earlier. Manjoume, he thought the name was. Yuusuke didn't think much of him, and after what had happened, neither did he. He watched for a few moments as Manjoume was pulled into the water by Juudai, and all but laughed. There were still a few tendrils of his own power wrapped around the boy, enough so he could manipulate him if he wanted to. With how few they were, the boy no doubt believed that he was free of the control, if he'd even noticed it at all. 

Darkness made a note of it. He could be useful at some point in the future, whether or not he was actively controlled. He'd seen somewhat into Manjoume's mind, and there _was_ more of an interest in Fubuki than the boy wanted to acknowledge at the moment. 

Just the thought of Fubuki himself made Darkness move farther on, wanting to think about that for a moment or two. It would have been amazing if he'd been able to get hold of the fun-loving duelist as his host instead of Yuusuke. But Fubuki was too devoted to the ideals of true love, romance, and laughter to even think about selling his soul out to evil. That was the kind of basis that he needed to work his power into. 

But…a thought crossed his mind. It could be difficult, but it held a slim chance of success. He would have to work on Yuusuke a little more, but it _might_ work. There was only one way to find out, and that meant actually trying it. 

He continued onward, noting various people and if they could be of any use to him. For the most part, none of them could be little more than a distraction or an annoyance at best. 

Darkness usually controlled where he went to within a hair's breadth, but perhaps it was because of some of his thoughts being turned towards Fubuki and Otogi that ended him up outside of their door. From what little gossip he'd heard drifting through the shadows of the principal's office, his score on the written test was still being determined, and they were also searching for someone who could be his opponent for the practical exam. Darkness smirked to himself and considered manipulating Yuusuke to offer to do it himself. He didn't care if Otogi joined the Academy or not, but it could be fun to watch. Amusement like that was hard to come by, even for him. 

He passed through the door easily, as any shadow would, and looked around. Neither of them were here at the moment. They were more than likely off carousing somewhere else on the island. Darkness sneered at the very thought. Let them have their fun. They couldn't stop what was coming. Very soon, inside of ten days, on the night of the dark of the moon, he would have himself a new body, and he _knew_ all of Otogi's weaknesses. His djinn would be on his knees before him in no time. 

The faintest of growls, far too low to be heard by anyone if they'd even been there, echoed softly from his lips just at the thought of what had lost him his djinn. His slave, his _property_. He'd went through too much back there for Otogi not to be his. He had chased him, hunted him down, learned of the weakness any djinn had to cold iron, and trapped him with it. Before he'd even begun that hunt, he'd searched out the purest of crystals to hold him in, and that hadn't been an easy search either. 

Casting the spell then hadn't been a snap of his fingers, either. It had taken quite a bit of strength out of him, and he'd needed to rest before he could even consider calling the newly enslaved djinn back out for even the smallest of reasons. Despite the strength of the spell, he fully expected Otogi to fight him every step of the way, and he was really very much looking forward to it. 

Though the more he thought about it, perhaps what had happened had been a blessing in disguise. Some kind of spell had managed to work it's way through the defenses on his home, but before it could do whatever it was that it was meant to do, those defenses had reacted belatedly, and turned the spell on itself. The practical upshot of that was that his entire castle had been destroyed, slinging him back into the darkness and ripping a hole in reality itself, one centered almost perfectly on Otogi's crystal. 

And with how kind and gentle Fubuki had been to the djinn since he'd unleashed him, Otogi hadn't had to fight the spell for so much as a breath. Indeed, he'd went along with it as if it were his own desires that guided him now. Darkness quite looked forward to proving him wrong on that. A djinn was a slave, bound to serve, and incapable of disobeying their master. 

Thick, dark anticipation surged along what passed for his veins as he imagined the fury and the fight in Otogi as he threw himself against the magical bindings, only to be forced to do whatever it was that Darkness wanted him to do. The fight would fade, and be replaced by resignation and hopelessness, and eventually the proper subservient attitude of a tamed slave. 

He would almost regret winning that fight. Otogi was partially so amusing to him because of how much resistance he'd put up over the years. But it would be worth it in the end, because he would have all of that wonderful power trained and brought obedient to his hand at long last. 

And if he could manage to do what he'd thought of earlier, it would make everything even sweeter. He determined that he _would_ find a way to do that, no matter how long it took. Even if it meant he had to delay claiming his slave for a few short years. He'd waited that long before. He could do it again, if he really had to. 

But he didn't think it would. In fact, the more that he thought about it, the more inclined he was to think that the sooner he got things done, the better. He couldn't rush what Yuusuke was doing. He _needed_ a body to worm his way into this world before he tried anything else. 

Time was just moving too slowly, and while he could to a degree define his own personal perception of time, he couldn't actually _change_ it. And redefining it would simply be too much of a pain at the moment. Which meant he was going to have to do something he hated to do when he got right down to it: wait. 

He was about to fade away into the shadows again, to return to Yuusuke and see if the other had managed to wake up yet, when the door to the room opened and Otogi and Fubuki came in. He did fade a little, enough so that it wasn't likely that he'd be noticed, and watched curiously. 

"Where did you leave it?" Otogi asked, leaning against the back of the door while Fubuki started to search through drawers for something. 

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have to look for it, would I?" Fubuki's words could have been angrily spoken, but instead there was a cheerful aspect to them, as if they were nothing more than a joke. Darkness rolled his eyes; this idiot was nothing _but_ an idiot, a jester, someone who couldn't have grasped the concept of being serious if it had been rubbed in his face with steel. He would deserve everything Darkness had planned for him and then some. 

He turned his attention more to Otogi, taking in what changes had occurred in his property. The djinn was dressed casually, black slacks and a green sweater the exact same shade of his eyes, a marked difference from the uniforms everyone else around here wore. Almost as soon as his eyes fell on Otogi, however, the djinn stiffened up. A single word hissed through his lips, the exact one that the watching shadow creature would have expected. 

"Darkness." 

**

To Be Continued

**


	17. Cupcakes

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Cupcakes  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Fubuki turned as soon as the word fell from Otogi's lips, and tensed at the look on the djinn's face. He'd never seen Otogi looking this upset about anything before, not even when he'd first come out of the crystal. "What's wrong?" 

"Darkness is around here somewhere. I can feel the bastard looking at me." Otogi's fists clenched and he looked around, trying to see if there were any signs of what Darkness was doing. 

The duelist looked around as well, but saw nothing that shouldn't have been there in his room. All the clutter was in its usual space. Nothing was missing or out of place. "Otogi, there's no one here but us." 

"He doesn't have to be here to see me." Otogi all but growled the words out. "He can scry from long distances, if he has the right equipment. It wouldn't take that long to get it for him, either." He prowled around a little, but there was nothing more than that intense feeling of being watched, and the prickle along the back of his neck that shrieked it was Darkness doing the watching. 

He'd felt that many times before when he'd been trying his best to get away from the dark sorcerer. He hadn't known what it was at first, but as the instances of it had mounted up, he'd learned. It hadn't prevented him from being caught in the end, but he could still understand that feeling when it came. 

Slowly, however, the sensation eased away, and Otogi found himself relaxing. "He's gone." He'd almost forgotten how much he hated knowing that those eyes were on him. 

"Well, I found what I was looking for." Fubuki waved a cookbook. "Let's go see what kind of damage we can do in the kitchen!" 

Otogi nodded, though he couldn't say his heart was in it all that much anymore. Baking cupcakes had seemed like a good idea at the time, but after this…well, he wanted to find a pleasant dark hole to curl up in and forget the rest of creation existed for a while. 

Make that a lighted hole. He didn't really want anything to do with darkness, as a name or a concept, for as long as he could possibly get away with. 

He followed Fubuki through the corridors of Obelisk Blue until they reached the kitchen. Most students in a school wouldn't have been allowed near it, but Fubuki was not only an Obelisk, he was one of the elite among them. He was allowed to do virtually anything he wanted to. And if that meant commandeering the kitchen to make cupcakes, then the cooks just got themselves out of the way and waited to clean up anything afterwards. 

_The elite can do anything here. That's familiar._ No matter where you were, that was one of the few constants. The elite among the mages and wizards had been permitted to do anything where he had come from. He still didn't know how Darkness had come to be among them. He'd simply _appeared_ one day, and had all of that power at his command. 

Darkness couldn't be his real name. No one knew what it was, but the simple fact was that your average sane parents didn't name one's child Darkness. His face was concealed by the mask, and Otogi couldn't even be certain he could have put a hair color to him. Or if he did, that it would have been the natural one. Magic could so easily hide such things, even from a djinn. 

Besides, he hadn't exactly been taking down notes on Darkness's physical characteristics when he'd been trying to get as far away from him as he possibly could. 

Which really had been a good idea at the time, but now, when he could use any scrap of information possible to try and locate the bastard, it seemed like a little short sighted. Oh, well. He couldn't change the past. That was something beyond even a senior djinn's power. 

He watched as Fubuki got to work pulling everything together for cupcakes, admiring the smooth lines of the other's hands and body more than he was doing anything else. His lips tingled ever so sweetly at the memory of the kisses they'd shared so far. He looked forward to more. To many more. And to _more_ than kisses as well. 

Fubuki filled a place in his heart that he hadn't even been aware was there until it wasn't anymore. He'd flirted with the best of them, and even bedded a few, but there had been nothing there beyond the satiation of needs and in one or two cases a good friendship. Fubuki…oh, Fubuki was so much more than that. 

Which was why he wasn't even going to bring it up unless Fubuki did first. The ties that linked them had their roots in the crystal and their relationship as owner and djinn. Even with Fubuki having made the first moves, and he truly hoped that meant that what he felt was something felt _freely_, it still worried Otogi. Before he would truly feel free to have any kind of deeper relationship, he wanted to _be_ free. 

"Here, taste!" Fubuki shoved a spoon towards Otogi, with a bit of batter on the edge. Otogi obediently licked at it and smiled. Fubuki probably wasn't the best cook he'd ever met, but sweet batter was always good. "Well?" 

"I'm not dying," he teased a little. "So I guess it's all right." 

Fubuki rolled his eyes somewhat but stirred the batter a little more. There were a few lumps in it, and Otogi wasn't sure if all the ingredients had been mixed in perfectly, but if they'd both wanted perfect cupcakes, Otogi could have done them himself without so much as a blink of an eye. This wasn't because they wanted perfection, or even necessarily because they wanted cupcakes. 

They wanted to spend time with each other, and this was a very convenient excuse for that. 

But as pleasant as this was, the awareness that Darkness had somehow, from somewhere, found him again hovered in the back of his mind. Was Darkness back in that other world, the universe that he'd somehow found himself tossed away from? Or was he here somewhere, holed up in a secret location yet again, ready to pull Otogi towards him at a moment's notice, and force him to serve him. 

_He can't. Not anymore, not without the crystal._ That was one possible bright side to all of this. Otogi now served, whether he liked it or not, whoever owned that shimmering clear crystal. Since that person was Fubuki, and he was very certain Fubuki would never give the crystal to anyone without checking with Otogi first, much less to someone like Darkness…well, he was safer than he'd been before. 

He shuddered just a little at that thought. To think that chains could mean safety… 

_No_. They didn't. They meant bondage and enslavement, bending his will to another's. Just because Fubuki was kind and caring and so content with his life that he didn't even need to wish for anything didn't mean he was going to be happy like this. If he were free, then he could unleash all of his powers against Darkness and be _truly_ safe for the first time in years! 

"Otogi?" Fubuki looked at him worriedly. "Are you all right? You were shaking." 

The djinn jumped a touch and turned towards him. "I'm fine," he replied, managing to dredge up a faint little smile. "I just had some things on my mind, that's all." He really hoped that Fubuki wouldn't probe too deeply. It would be hard to lie to him. It could even be impossible, and for more than one reason. 

"All right." Fubuki smiled brightly, then turned back to pouring out the batter into the cupcake pan. "If you ever do want to talk about something, let me know?" 

Otogi really wondered what he had ever done to get someone like this in his life. If he ever figured it out, he was certain that he'd do it again. Twice or three times, actually. Just to make certain he never had to worry about losing him. He somewhat suspected if it were something _really_ bothering him, more than just the threat of Darkness, Fubuki wouldn't have backed down quite so easily. That in and of itself warmed his heart. 

"Sure. But this wasn't anything, really. Just hoping we can figure a way to break that spell, and hopefully before Darkness shows up again." He couldn't help the faint growl at the very thought of that beast being around Duel Academia…or around Fubuki himself. 

"We will." Fubuki said it calmly, then looked momentarily thoughtful. It was an interesting expression on him. "I wonder if Yuusuke could help." 

Again, that faint disturbance that he'd never been able to pin down about the other boy. "You think he could?" 

"Maybe. I know he's been studying a lot of weird things over there in the research dorms. I can ask. He might know where to look at least." Fubuki put the cupcake pan in the oven and set the timer. "There we go." 

Otogi thought about that. Asking Yuusuke might give them answers or more questions. Or both. If he were dealing with magic of any kind, then magic had a way of doing that. "That might work." His words were a little reserved and thoughtful, more because of that strange sensation he got whenever he was around the other. It just did not feel _right_. 

"Cool. We can do it after the cupcakes are done." Fubuki grinned at him. "Maybe if we bring him some, he'll feel good enough to help us." 

"Right. It has looked like he wasn't feeling all that well lately." He'd heard snips and snaps of rumors that Manjoume had been seen helping Yuusuke to his dorm the night before. Manjoume himself hadn't said anything about it, probably because he didn't like it to be known if he went anywhere near the Obelisk Blue dorms. He wasn't well-liked around there for the most part. Otogi hadn't quite gotten the details on why, but he'd picked up that it mostly had to do with a duel lost some months before he'd shown up. 

Fubuki leaned against a counter and stared off out a window thoughtfully. "I wonder if he'd like some soup or something. If he's really feeling all that bad, it would be nice to bring him something." He looked almost serious for a space of about six heartbeats, then said, "And we can't forget to take some cupcakes to Asuka! She deserves something sweet!" 

Otogi was not in the least surprised by this tangent. In fact, he didn't even think he could call it a tangent. Fubuki's mind was for the most part divided along two paths: the worship of love in all of its myriad forms, and Asuka. Sometimes those two intersected, but most of the time they didn't, and Otogi was very much of the opinion that Fubuki could follow both at the same time, whether they were intersecting or not. That was just how Fubuki was. 

"Right." He wondered if Yuusuke could find a way to send him back to his own world. Or a message, so his friends would know that he was all right and wasn't a prisoner of Darkness. That might be best. There were times he didn't think he would leave this world if a doorway to do so opened at that very moment. 

_But they have an Otogi Ryuuji here,_ his consicence whispered to him. _Why would they want or need another one?_

That was easily fixed, however. He could change his looks and his name on any given whim. He didn't want to, since he preferred to be himself no matter what, but he _could_ do it. 

There were reasons to go, but there was one perfect reason to stay…and since Fubuki was standing so conveninetly close anyway, Otogi decided they could pass the time a little better if they were even closer. 

As he suspected, Fubuki had no objections at all to this. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	18. Gift

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Gift  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Yuusuke examined the next stage of the process he was undergoing carefully. This would be a little more difficult than the vows he'd taken before. That had set the stage. This was the first real act, proving that he was doing more than giving lip service to the shadows. And after he had accomplished this, he would have to wait a few more days until the new moon, for the last rite of union. 

This second stage would require blood. Not his blood, not yet anyway. From what he'd read of the final rite, _that_ would require him to cut himself. But until then, he could get what he needed from anyone. He wondered if he could persuade Manjoume to lend him a little juice from his veins. The idiot would probably do it, too. 

On second thought, that could get a little too difficult if something went wrong. The last thing he wanted was for someone, anyone, to find out what he was doing and try to stop him. So he would have to find some other way to handle this. 

He read over the ritual again, checking for any small details that he might have missed. _It doesn't require human blood._ That could be something he could work with. There were several small animals running around the island that he could trap and drain. It wouldn't be pretty or easy, but no one had ever said selling one's soul to evil was going to be either of those things. 

As he made plans, something twitched in the back of his mind, and he quickly closed the book and slid it out of sight. Someone was approaching his room, and with the intent to come inside. That wasn't a usual occurance, and he couldn't think for a moment of who it might be coming for a visit. Ryou seldom visited anyone, spending most of his time either dueling or preparing for duels. Fubuki had been so wrapped up in that djinn that Yuusuke wasn't certain he even remembered where Yuusuke himself lived anymore! 

Then there was a knock on the door. "Yuusuke?" Fubuki's voice came from the other side. "Are you in there? Gotta talk to you about something important!" There was a breath of hesistance, and then, "Otogi's with me." 

Well, this was getting interesting. Yuusuke glance around, then turned the lights on. They would need them to see by, even if he didn't anymore. And he didn't need to let them know that he didn't. He brushed himself off, and checked around once more. Darkness wasn't there, at least not that he could tell for the moment. He was on his own for this one. 

He strolled over to the door and opened it with a cheerful smile. "Well, hello there!" 

"Hey!" Fubuki grinned and Otogi nodded a little in greeting. "You look like you're feeling a lot better." 

"I am. It's amazing what a little rest can do for someone sometimes." Yuusuke motioned them both in and shut the door as they passed by him. He was vastly curious to find out just what it was they wanted. It couldn't have been just to go somewhere or have a practice duel or something. Fubuki would've just contacted him on their messengers for that little bit of nothing. "So what can I do for you?" 

Fubuki glanced at Otogi who nodded a bit, then looked back at Yuusuke. "I've heard that you're studying some interesting things over at that elite research dorm." 

Yuusuke tightened up just a little. If they knew what he was doing, were they there to stop him somehow? "What do you mean?" he tried to ask the question casually, but he was certain he didn't do very well at it. 

"Are you studying magic, or something like that?" Otogi got right to the point. "Because I'm going to need some help like that." 

This was getting even _more_ interesting than he'd expected it to. "Maybe. Just what is it you need? And why?" There was no need to tip his hand. 

"I'm a djinn." Otogi said the words carefully, his hands clenching and unclenching a little. "You've got to know what that is." That was very much not a question. 

Yuusuke affected amazement and disbelief. "You're joking! Those are just in children's stories! The Arabian Nights, things like that! Come on, what is it really?" If he hadn't decided to weld his life force to evil, maybe he could've been an actor. 

Otogi and Fubuki exchanged a glance that had more than a few hints of amusement in it, then Otogi looked back at him. The djinn gestured briefly, and Yuusuke's bed floated up casually from the floor. Yuusuke mentally snickered; it was fascinating to see how they tried to convince him when he, of all people, didn't need to be convinced! But since they didn't know that, he affected a gasp of amazement and took a step or two back before he reached forward tenatively. 

"How did you do that? You can't have put wires there…and…" he stared over at Otogi with every evidence of being shocked beyond words. "You…really are…" 

Otogi nodded a little. "Right. And that's the problem." Apparently they didn't intend to give him time to think things all the way through about the suddenness of a djinn appearing at the Academy, much less one applying to be a student. That was fine. The more they were trying to keep from him, the more that he could keep from them. 

"What do you mean?" He waved his hands more around the bed, still 'searching for wires' or any other means of holding it up, until the bed itself was lowered carefully to the ground. "That's just amazing…nothing I've read has had anything like it!" Most of what he had read lately had circled around much more interesting subjects than simple levitation, anyway. 

"There's a crystal that I was bound to some time ago, which makes whoever owns it my master." Distaste thicker than honey filled Otogi's words. "I want to find a way to break that spell so I can be free again." 

Yuusuke started to settle himself on the bed, then got up and went over to his chair. From the look he spied going between them, they were both amused by that. Good. Let them be. "You mean it's like your lamp?" 

"Something like that." Otogi rolled his eyes briefly. "There's a good chance that the person who sealed me to it is going to be coming around here again, and I don't want him to get that crystal." 

"Sounds like you should hide it, then," Yuusuke suggested after a few silent moments of thought. "That could be the first step, until or unless we can find a way to break it." 

Fubuki's eyes lit up with joy. "Then you _will_ help us?" 

This was so easy it was almost pathetic. He'd always known Fubuki could and did trust anyone in the blink of an eye, but he'd had no idea he was _this_ gullible once he did. No matter. It was all for the best anyway. For his best. 

"We don't need any djinns around here who aren't friendly, right?" Yuusuke grinned at them both. "And if that guy went around sealing you to something, he's not all that friendly, is he?" 

"That's one way to put it. He's a complete and total bastard, and I hate him," Otogi snapped the words out angrily. Yuusuke was fascinated to hear this from his side of things. He still intended to own Otogi, but any information could be useful, especially what came from Otogi's own mouth. "I don't know how he's found me again, but I won't let him have me." 

_That's what you think. He's going to have you whether you let him or not._ Yuusuke smirked to himself. Out loud, all he said was, "So where is the crystal now? Is it owned by someone?" 

Again they looked at each other, then Fubuki nodded slightly. He actually looked serious, which Yuusuke was not used to seeing from him. "I've got it." 

"So you've got your very own djinn." Yuusuke let himself grin some. "I thought you two were getting close. So that's what it is." 

Fubuki grinned over at Otogi for a moment before turning his attention back to Yuusuke. "Well, that's not all of it." They didn't appear to have rehearsed the movement, but they reached towards one another unerringly, their hands joining. "Not at all." 

"Oh." Yuusuke blinked a few times. He wasn't certain if he were really that surprised or not. He'd noticed it a little already, of course, but to have them confess it like this…he had to admit he wasn't quite expecting it. A few months earlier he might have been surprised or even disgusted. A year or two earlier he might've never wanted to talk to Fubuki again. 

But now, he had other things on his mind, and other goals as well. What they chose to do with themselves meant absolutely nothing to him except for what he could use to get what he wanted. If that meant being their understanding friend for a time, then so be it. 

He shrugged some, letting them think what they would. It was easier than having to come up with some story of his own. "You should probably still put it somewhere safe, so no one finds out Fubuki has it and tries to attack him for it." He wondered if they could be persuaded to leave it in _his_ keeping. Still owned by Fubuki, technically, but where he could get to it very easily. 

"Maybe." Otogi squeezed Fubuki's hand a little. "But what we want the most is to break the spell entirely. Can you do that?" 

All things considered, Yuusuke was certain that he could, if he studied it enough. Now that he knew, he thought he could see, or feel, something like chains leading from Otogi to Fubuki. That had to be the tie of slave and master, or perhaps even to the crystal, if it were on Fubuki's person. Finding out where it was kept could be very useful. 

"I don't know right now," was what he told them. "Most of what I've been studying has to do with dueling." Fubuki would easily believe that. He'd left dueling magic alone now for the greater power of darkness itself. "But I can try. There are some books I haven't checked into yet that might have some clues. If I find out anything, I'll be sure to let you know." 

Otogi nodded, and Fubuki grinned for a moment before bounding up to give Yuusuke a quick hug. "Thanks! You don't know how much this means to us." 

Oh, but Yuusuke was certain that he did know. He smiled. "I can imagine." 

Fubuki laughed for a moment, then pulled something out of his coat pocket. "I forgot all about these!" He handed a small package, from which a very sweet scent arose, over to Yuusuke. "We made these and thought you might like some." 

Yuusuke blinked in surprise as he accepted it automatically. "Oh. Thank you." He unwrapped it to discover two iced cupcakes nestled in a napkin, with sprinkles that formed a smiley face on top of the icing. They were actually quite cute. "I bet they're good, too." 

"Of course they are! I made them!" Fubuki declared with a grin. Then he bounced over to Otogi. "Come on, I want to get in some surfing before it gets too late." He turned to look at Yuusuke. "You want to come along? It could be fun!" 

For a brief second, Yuusuke considered saying yes. It had been a long time since he'd done that, and some small part of his heart pattered happily at the thought of sunlight and sand and sea and the laughter that came when someone was around Fubuki. 

Then he remembered the vows that he'd taken and the lengths he'd already went to, and the choices he had made. _He doesn't deserve to have someone like me around him anyway._ If Otogi had been human and hadn't had all the power that a djinn had, then Yuusuke decided in that moment that he would have left them both be and went on about his quest for power without them knowing a thing. But he needed that djinn, and that meant he was going to have to take him from Fubuki. Eventually. 

"You two go have fun." He waved a hand lazily. "I'm going to see if I can get started on finding out what I can." Let them have their time together now. It was the only gift he could really give them before taking everything away from them. 

"You sure?" Fubuki took a step towards him, hints of concern in his warm eyes. "The offer's open, any time." 

Yuusuke managed a smile that felt oddly like the ones he'd smiled before he'd discovered the true strength of the shadows and his own desires for immortality and power had awakened. "I'm sure. Enjoy yourselves." He meant it, with all of the heart he had left to him. 

When he was alone again in the room, he stood by the window and watched until he saw both of them leaving. They looked so young, so happy and carefree, no matter what. He almost wished he didn't want what he did. But there was no turning back now. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	19. Assistant

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Assistant  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"Manjoume." The voice was quiet, but Manjoume recognized it at once. He turned, trying to look a cross between his usual self and …well, not his usual self. It was hard to describe, given this was the first time he and Yuusuke had crossed paths in several days. In fact, it had been nearly five days exactly since he'd seen the other doing that strange chanting thing in the deeper woods. Manjoume had kept track of them. 

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked slightly grumpily. As far as he could tell, this was going to be all right. Whatever Yuusuke had done to him, it hadn't made him _like_ the other any more. He just had thought Fubuki was a lot more interesting than he usually did. 

"I'm going to need some help for a special project of mine," Yuusuke said, his voice low and almost seductive. Manjoume tried not to roll his eyes. There was no way that was going to work on _him_. He'd pretend, though. 

"What is it you need?" Whatever it was, he was pretty sure that he could afford it. There wasn't much that he couldn't afford, when you got right down to it. 

Yuusuke pulled him off to a corner, away from where most people wandering the school corridors would have seen them. "I need you to trap me a rabbit or a squirrel. Or just any small animal. It has to be caught alive, and I need it no later than tonight at sunset." 

Manjoume frowned; of all the things he'd expected, that wasn't one of them. "What do you need it for?" he asked without thinking about it. 

"Do you really need to know?" Yuusuke asked, his voice dropping a little deeper to sound even more seductive. To someone else, it might have worked. Manjoume wanted to roll his eyes and tell him to take his parlor tricks to someone who'd find them interesting. Like five year olds. 

Instead, he simply let himself droop a bit, as if falling under that spell or whatever. "No, I guess not. Where should I bring it?" 

"Where you saw me before. You remember the place, don't you?" 

Manjoume nodded a little, since it was almost impossible for him to really forget it. He wished at times he could tell someone about what was going on, but the closest he could come was talking to Sameshima about. Since he didn't really have that much to tell him, Manjoume didn't find himself going to the principal's office that often. Besides, that could give someone a really bad reputation, even someone like him. 

"Good. I'll see you there." Yuusuke slipped away like a breath of wind, and Manjoume leaned against the wall, trying to catch his own breath. It was hard to do anything with Yuusuke practically pinning him to the wall like that. 

_What in the world could he want that for?_ It made no sense whatsoever that he could think of. All that came to mind was that it must have had something to do with what he'd seen that day in the woods. But how the two linked together, he was still missing. 

Truth to be told, Manjoume didn't want to do this. He had no real sentimental attachments to squirrels, rabbits, frogs, or anything else considered cute and cuddly. He just didn't like the idea of touching one of those little things and getting fur and fleas all over himself. 

_And I'm not going to._ He stalked out of the building and down to the beach, to where he knew he could get good cell phone reception. There was no way he was going to put himself to any kind of trouble when five minutes on the phone could fix that. 

"All right, listen up," he snapped as soon as the other end was picked up. The number he dialed went straight to his personal servant at home, the one who handled everything for him that he needed whether he was there or not. She was efficient and quiet, the two qualities he loved the best in the people who worked for him. "I want you to send me a rabbit. A nice big healthy one, and I want it no later than four o'clock this afternoon. I don't care what color it is and I don't care if it's a boy or a girl. I just want a rabbit as fast as possible. Got it?" 

"Of course, sir," the quiet voice responded. "Is there anything else, sir?" 

"If there was, I would've said it, wouldn't I?" Manjoume snapped before he terminated the call. He wasn't usually that abrupt with her, but ordering a rabbit put him a touch on the edgy side. If he wound up having to answer to his brothers for that, he was going to be very annoyed. 

He glanced at his watch and nodded. If she handled things as efficently as she usually did, then the rabbit would be there no later than quarter to four. Since it was just past noon now, that gave him lots more free time to try to figure out what was going on. 

There was still no way that he could get into the elite research dorm to track down Yuuske's movements there, and as far as he could tell, Sameshima had already checked with Daitoukuji, who also conducted some of his alchemical researches there. Nothing untoward had been found. Or if it had, it wasn't something that _he_ was getting told about. He ground his teeth a little; sometimes he hated not knowing everything about this place. If he were going to save it, he needed answers, didn't he? 

He still didn't know what to do about Juudai, either. Or about Asuka. Or Fubuki. He'd spent more than one night in the last week staring up at the ceiling of his far too small room in Osiris, trying to work out just what was going on in his head. Seeing Asuka, or talking to her, or thinking about her, made him want to quiver and shake and smile with delight. Seeing Juudai made him want to strangle him sometimes. And once in a while, it made him want to do other things that far more inclined him to strangle himself, if it had been possible. 

And then there was Fubuki. 

Just the thought of him sent shivers and chills all through Manjoume, of the most pleasant kind. He was kind, he was caring, he was funny and charming, he was everything that made Manjoume want to spend time around someone. 

And Fubuki only saw him as a friend. Manjoume was certain of that. It was hard to miss, what with him cuddling up against Otogi every chance the two of them had together. Sometimes it made him want to kill something or someone. 

_Maybe Yuusuke's right. If I can get rid of Otogi somehow, then maybe…_ He closed his eyes and shook his head. No. That was wrong. No matter how much it appealed to him, he knew it was wrong. Not to mention that if he did anything to hurt Fubuki, even in the mildest sense, Asuka would never speak to him again, and rightly so. He wouldn't do anything that would get _her_ angry if he had any options on it. 

But on the other hand, if he stopped Yuusuke from doing what he was doing, maybe that would impress Fubuki _or_ Asuka enough so they'd notice him more? That had a much better sound to it! 

That still left the thought of what to do about Juudai floating in his mind. Seriously, some of the dreams that he'd had lately were just _weird_. Not that he would expect anything to do with Juudai to be less than weird, of course. Why did thoughts of him keep cropping up at the most inconvenient moments? Why could he just not get through a day without one of those dream-memories floating through his mind? 

And when they were actually near each other, it was even worse. He had to keep a tight rein on his mouth to be certain he didn't blurt out anything that the Osiris shouldn't know. This was stuff that was way too dangerous for Juudai to get involved with. The kid was so innocent, so _stupid_, that Manjoume frequently forgot that they were the same age. Juudai just acted like he was five instead of fifteen most of the time, with all of his talk about how dueling should just be for fun. How he'd gotten accepted here was beyond Manjoume's wildest imagination. 

"Hey, big brother!" Oh, great. _Them_ again. He still hadn't had the chance to stash them where they could actually do some good. Every time he'd tried, someone had come along, and he wanted to do this where no one could see him. Maybe he should ask Fubuki for some ninja lessons. 

"What is it?" he asked, glad that he was still on the beach where no one was going to notice him talking to thin air. He wished that either everyone could see duel spirits or that _he_ couldn't. Life would be so much simpler like that. He still didn't know why these annoying things had attached themselves to him. He didn't want anything to do with them, but they just wouldn't let him go. 

"There's something creepy going on this way! I can _feel_ it!" Ojama Yellow shuddered as he pointed off into the distance, towards the woods. Manjoume turned that way and frowned. Was that someone going into the woods? If there was, they were too far away for him to actually see them. 

"Yeah, well, it can happen without us needing to be there, can't it?" he grumbled, even as he was already starting that way. It couldn't be Fujiwara, could it? They weren't supposed to meet for hours, and he'd went off in another direction anyway. 

Before long, he could see who it was, and that he was heading in a very roundabout way for the elite research building. That confused Manjoume more than a little. He knew that Daitoukuji spent time there, but why was his teacher going _this_ way to get there? Why not just the usual straightforward route? Manjoume just didn't get this at all. 

_And he doesn't have Pharaoh with him._ That in and of itself was strange, since the cat very seldom left his master. Manjoume was of the opinion that Pharaoh knew no one else would feed him and that was why he stayed by him. Professor Chronos had other opinions, but Manjoume paid little attention to those anymore. 

He stopped when it looked like Daitoukuji was stopping, and waited, listening. 

"I know, sir," the voice was quiet, but very definitly that of his teacher. Who could he be talking to? Manjoume began to hate the very fact he'd ever come back here from North School. At least _there_ he didn't have to wonder and worry about what everyone else was up to. "We need one more to complete the team. I have at least two candidates, possibly three." He paused again, and Manjoume listened intently. So that was why Daitoukuji was coming out by this roundabout route. He wanted to have this conversation where he supposed no one would hear him. 

But what in the world was he talking about? And to who? He kept on listening, but nothing of what he could hear then made that much sense. Daitoukuji had lowered his voice enough so that he couldn't hear him plainly, no matter how hard he tried. 

When Manjoume looked again, all he could see was the normal trees and bushes of the forested part of the island. A few birds fluttered here and there, but there was nothing to indicate his teacher had even been there in the first place. _This is just too crazy._

"What was so creepy about that?" he muttered under his breath. "All it sounds like he's recruiting for some dueling squad." He wasn't entirely sure if that were true, but it gave him something to gripe about, and he wanted to gripe at the moment. There were team duels sometimes in the Pro Leagues, and sometimes they recruited from the various dueling schools. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard or seen before. 

Which was why the fact every word had made chills run down his spine perfectly silly, of course. It wasn't supposed to be _anything_, but it was anyway, and he didn't know what. 

_It's got nothing to do with what I've been doing trying to stop Fujiwara,_ he decided, starting back the way he'd came. He wouldn't be able to follow Daitoukuji into the research dorm anyway, so he might as well go on back and think about going to his next class. Or not. Most of the time most of the teachers didn't care if he were there or not. But it would give him something to do with his time until his little delivery showed up, at least. 

And something to think about that wasn't Fujiwara, Daitoukuji, Asuka, Fubuki, or Juudai. Geez, sometimes he wondered if there were more things he wasn't thinking about than things he _was_! 

**

To Be Continued

**


	20. Observation

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Observation  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Fubuki laid on his back and stared up at the stars. He might have been a bit cold, if it weren't for the warm and warming presence by his side. He smiled as he peeked over to see Otogi's silver-touched black hair. The moon was almost gone, just another three or four days until it was new entirely, but it still was enough to transform the djinn into something even _more_ magical looking than before. Fubuki hadn't really believed that was possible, until he saw it for himself. 

_I hope Yuusuke can find a way to break that spell on him._ What little Otogi had mentioned of that Darkness person made Fubuki very certain that he didn't want to have anything to do with him at all. Just the thought of Darkness made him sick to his stomach. 

"Are you warm enough?" Otogi's voice came whispering from the comforting shadows around them. "I could make it a little warmer if you're not." 

"I'm perfect as long as you're around," Fubuki said, leaning closer to him. They'd only kissed and held each other, but there was something of an unspoken agreement that when they didn't have to worry about Darkness and the chains that bound Otogi to the crystal, there would be more to come. 

Otogi turned his head a little and brushed his lips across Fubuki's silently. Fubuki had dated lots of people in his years at school, but there had never been anyone like Otogi before. Even if he hadn't been a djinn, there was something special about him. Fubuki wondered if the Otogi Ryuuji of this world, the duelist and the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, would be anything like this. 

He wasn't sure that he wanted to meet him and find out, especially if the answer was no. He had _this_ Otogi, and this was all that he could have ever wanted or needed. 

"It's getting late," Otogi murmured at last, regretfully. "We should probably go back inside." With the results of his tests, and the duel he'd had against one of the proctors a couple of days earlier, he was officially an Osiris Red. Not because of any lack of skill, but simply because that was where new students had to be put when they came in later in the year. Sameshima had made it plain that he would not be surprised if Otogi were promoted very quickly. 

He had a room in that other dorm, though, even with that possibility. He just never actually used it, preferring to stay with Fubuki, for multiple reasons. At least that was what actually happened. What most people saw was Otogi going dutifully to his little room there, closing the door, and turning the lights off. They didn't see him vanishing out the window to go right to Fubuki's room at Obelisk Blue. They didn't ask, and he didn't tell them. Where he slept was none of their business, after all. 

"I know." Fubuki didn't make any moves to get up. He just felt too good there, with Otogi's arm around him and the glistening stars above them. 

It was hard to believe how much time had already passed since they'd met. It was going on two weeks. He hadn't really thought when he'd found that crystal that his life would change so sweetly. A whole new dimension that even he hadn't been aware of had been added to his concept of the universe in general. It seemed even the Wizard of Love could learn a few new things once in a while. 

Otogi shifted just a little, and began to run his fingers gently through Fubuki's hair. The young duelist smiled and leaned in towards him even more, making it easier for Otogi to reach him. That felt so _very_ good. How could anyone have possibly wanted to force someone like Otogi to work for them when he could make someone so happy completely by his own will? 

"I don't know why I have to do this!" A familiar voice came grumbling out of the darkness, and both of them froze where they were. What in the world was Manjoume doing out and about at this hour? It wasn't past lights out yet, but it was still later than most people preferred to be up. 

Otogi didn't waste a breath. With a snap of his fingers, he encloaked them both in an illusion of not being there. Anyone looking at the spot where they sat would see only undisturbed grass and sand and rocks. 

"Because you'll get what you want the most if you help me." Both Otogi and Fubuki were startled to hear Yuusuke's voice answer Manjoume. "And you want Fubuki, don't you?" 

_That_ set both Otogi and his boyfriend staring at each other before looking back to where they could just see the starlight-touched forms of Manjoume and Yuusuke moving past them. Otogi got to his feet and urged Fubuki to follow, both being as quiet as they could. 

"And all I've asked you to do was bring that rabbit and come along with me," Yuusuke continued. "Is it really that much of an inconvenience?" 

"I've got things I could be doing," Manjoume grumped. "Besides, I thought you said that all I needed to do was get that thing for you." He hefted up the small cage in his hands and sent a glower down towards it. 

"It'll be easier if you just come along and help me." Yuusuke told him. "You're not going to want to miss this." 

"I'll just bet I won't." Manjoume grumped. "What is it that you're doing, anyway?" He didn't sound very interested, at least not to Fubuki. But what in the world _was_ going on? 

"I'm helping you get what you want. It just so happens that what you want happens to benefit me at the same time," Yuusuke replied. He turned his head as he answered, and Fubuki wondered if he were actually smiling or not. From the tone of his voice, Fubuki thought he _should_ be, but it was hard to be certain at this distance. And even if he was, he had a feeling it wasn't a very nice smile. 

For the first time, Fubuki realized there was something very _wrong_ going on with Yuusuke. He'd brushed it all off before. He hadn't wanted to think that his friend was doing anything that he shouldn't be, or that it was affecting him in any way if he was. But the Yuusuke he knew wouldn't have said any of the things he was saying now to Manjoume. He just wasn't _like_ that. 

Or at least Fubuki hadn't ever known him to be. Perhaps he hadn't ever really known Yuusuke at all. That thought hurt deep inside. 

Otogi pulled him to a stop behind a large boulder, and the two of them crouched there, cloaked in the djinn's magic, watching what was going on. Fubuki didn't even think about what he was doing as he wrapped one hand around Otogi's and held it close to him. He had always been a very physical person, and he wanted to feel the close comfort of the one he loved right now. 

Manjoume and Yuuske were clearly outlined in the starlight ahead of them. Manjoume looked more annoyed than anything else, but Yuusuke appeared to be exalted as he drew a circle about himself with a sharp knife, the cage that Manjoume had brought inside of it with him. Manjoume stood to one side, arms folded over his chest, his usual expression of annoyance clear. 

Within the circle, Yuusuke began to chant, and Fubuki glanced over at Otogi to see if he understood any of it. He knew that _he_ didn't. The words were beyond incomprehensible to him. But from the way Otogi began to stiffen, he thought perhaps the other did know what was going on. And he began to be glad that he himself didn't. 

What happened inside that circle was unspeakable. Before five minutes had passed, Manjoume had stumbled off to the side and from what Fubuki could hear, he was being very, very sick. Fubuki couldn't blame him, either. Especialy not when he'd pulled away and started to do the exact same thing. 

Only Otogi kept watching, and if the light had been sunlight instead of starlight, someone might have noticed that there was a green tinge to his skin as well. But he'd seen more horrible things than that before coming here. He didn't like watching, but he wanted to be certain of what it was he was seeing. 

_He's doing it._ He had never seen this particuliar ritual before, but he'd heard vaguely of rites that certain dark magic users performed to gain their unholy powers. This was very similar to what he'd been told. Whatever powers that Yuusuke was bonding himself to, they were of the most dark and unholy sort that he could imagine. 

That had to be it. That had to be why from the moment he'd met him, Yuusuke had sent chills down his spine. The power was so much like that of Darkness. Maybe it was even the same. He shuddered just to think about it. No Darkness, not ever again. 

He wanted to interfere, to break into the unholy area and do something to stop it. But he couldn't bring himself to move. Manjoume was there, and Fubuki, and either of them could be harmed if he did something at the moment. Manjoume's reaction showed that he wasn't as deep into the darkness as Yuusuke himself was. He could even be an unwitting pawn. 

Otogi kept Fubuki protected even while his boyfriend was throwing up. There was no way that he was going to let Yuusuke know they were there. He watched, his stomach churning and protesting, and promised it some wine to calm itself down afterwards. That was probably the only thing that kept _him_ from vomiting as the hideous rite finally drew to an end. 

"Almost done. Just once more." Yuusuke all but purred the words out as he broke the circle and walked towards where Manjoume was slowly coming back, wiping his mouth a little. 

"Huh?" Manjoume stared at him. "What are you talking about now? And I'm not going to be helping you with this anymore!" 

Yuusuke only smiled a little. "If that's what you want." He motioned back to where his circle had been. "That should be cleaned up, though. Or there could be a lot of questions." He paused for a breath or two. "And just so you don't forget, you are the one who ordered a rabbit to be brought here. The delivery was a little noticeable, and someone might be curious as to what you had brought here. And if someone sees all of that, they could remember that what you ordered was small, and it wouldn't take _that_ much effort to find out what it was. I'm sure that Misawa could find it out in less than five minutes, if he were inclined." 

_That bastard!_ Otogi held back a growl only by the force of his will, and his fingers scraped lightly against the boulder he and Fubuki were hiding behind. No, Manjoume wasn't in the darkness, not willingly. But he was being forced, or tricked, into helping Yuusuke regardless. 

Manjoume himself had obviously figured that out, as the language he used at that moment wasn't even remotely suitable for anyone else to hear, no matter their age. Fubuki blinked a little as he settled back down by Otogi, then leaned over to whisper in his ear, "I've never heard him talk like that before." 

Well, being forced into something like that could be a little annoying. Otogi just nodded some and watched as Yuusuke settled himself comfortably under a tree while Manjoume started to work on cleaning up everything. He didn't look all that thrilled about it either, from what either of them could see in the pale shadows, much less from what they could hear coming from him when the wind blew in the right direction. 

Otogi tugged at Fubuki's hand and the two of them hurried out of there, still wrapped in the djinn's protections. Neither of them said a word above the mildest of whispers until they were back in Fubuki's bedroom, and Otogi had placed every kind of shield he could think of around that room. 

"What was that?" Fubuki asked once the last protection was in place and Otogi sagged down on the bed across from him. 

"Just about the worst thing it could be," Otogi said quietly. "Yuusuke's selling his soul to evil, and I'm pretty sure evil is accepting it." 

Fubuki frowned worriedly. "So how do we stop it?" There had to be a way, didn't there? 

"We can't. Unless he chooses to negate it himself, he's made his choice," Otogi told him with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Fubuki. I'm really sorry." 

**To Be Continued**


	21. Mistake

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Mistake  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"So what can we do about it?" Fubuki didn't often get serious, but when it came to someone that he cared about in any kind of a way, he could do it. "There has to be something. Even if we can't stop him from…that, we can stop him from whatever else it is he's doing? I mean…" He was starting to get tangled up in his own thoughts. 

"He's doing it for a reason. He has to be." That only made sense as far as Otogi was concerned. Normal people didn't just wake up and decide they were going to take part in long, involved rituals to hand oneself over to the forces of evil wrapped up in a bow. This was something that Yuusuke had to have planned, _and_ he had to have some purpose behind it. 

He racked his brains for what he could remember of such things being talked about back where he'd come from. There had to be something he could remember. But the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that his memories of those days had begun to be fuzzy and hazy, as if they'd taken place eons ago instead of just a few years. At least he thought it was a few years. It was hard to even think about it anymore. 

_Just once more._ The three words echoed about in his brain a bit. Yuusuke had said them, and they had to mean something. He ran his fingers across the top of the blanket on Fubuki's bed, thinking hard. What was it? There was a key in there somewhere, if he could just _find_ it. 

Frustrated, he threw himself out on the bed, leaning against Fubuki. "I just don't get it," he muttered in annoyance. "It's on the tip of my tongue, and I just can't figure it out." 

"Hm?" Fubuki reached over to twine long strands of Otogi's hair around his fingers. He'd always found relaxing made it so much easier to think, and if he could get Otogi to relax… "What is it?" 

"Something he said, about 'just once more'. It won't stop nagging at me. It means something. But I just don't know…what…" Otogi stared out the window. Or to be precise, he stared at the moon: the nearly gone moon, whose faint light had been partially overwhelmed by the starlight while they'd been outside. 

Fubuki bent his head and looked down at him. "Otogi?" 

"It's the moon," Otogi whispered, staring at it still. "That's what he meant. It's the only thing that makes sense. Remember when I first got here? He was asking about when the new moon was: that's the _dark_ of the moon. In magic, the phases of the moon are really important a lot of the time. The dark of the moon is a time of power, like the full moon. It can be used for almost anything, and one of those things is bindings or offerings to evil." 

Otogi turned his head to look up at Fubuki now. "The ritual has to peak at the dark of the moon. That's in just another few days. That's what he meant. There's only one more thing he has to do, and that _has_ to be when it is. And then he gets whatever it is that he wants with it." 

"I guess the question is what he wants, then." Fubuki mused, still playing with Otogi's hair as he did. "And what he's going to do to get it." He shuddered somewhat at the memory of what they'd already seen. "If he'd do that to a _rabbit_…" 

"We should talk with Manjoume, when we get a chance," Otogi decided, twining one hand up to caress Fubuki's hand. Just holding him, being held by him, touching and being touched, made him feel incredibly safe, and he no longer thought it had anything to do with the crystal being in Fubuki's possession. "I think he's being used, but he might have answers we don't." 

"We can do that," Fubuki agreed. "Do you think we have time to stop him?" 

Otogi didn't answer right away. "I don't know," he finally said. "We might not even be able to. I don't know what he has to do to finish the ritual out. It could be something that we can't stop no matter how hard we try, or worse." 

"What could be worse?" 

"If we do stop him, whatever he's doing, whatever power he's making a pact with, could come looking for him. And I wouldn't have the first idea of what to do about it." Wishes and games and such things were what he knew. Not how to stop the forces of evil in their tracks. That was really something more that Yuugi and Atemu had been good at. 

Fubuki tugged him closer and brushed a light kiss across the back of Otogi's neck. "So we find out what to do. I think I can sneak into the research dorm and find out what he's doing. I know where he's been working in there. Shouldn't be too hard to find out." 

Otogi's thoughts skittered around at the press of Fubuki's lips on his flesh and he had to work to get them back in order. "Good…idea…" Plus the thought of seeing Fubuki in action was very, very pleasant indeed. The promise of action, of actually _doing_ something instead of just trying to work his way into a place here at the Academy, was just as pleasant as well. 

Before either of them could get too involved in anything, a knock came at the door. Otogi froze at once, then reached out to brush the tips of his magical senses against whoever it was out there. He relaxed as soon as he had. It wasn't Yuusuke. "It's Manjoume." And as far as he could tell, there wasn't really anything wrapped around him in the magical sense of the term. 

"Come in, Manjoume!" Fubuki called out loud. Whatever it was, it had to be something important to get him to come over there. "And close the door." 

When Manjoume entered, he still looked more than a little pale: even for him. Otogi watched him carefully, ready to do anything that he felt he needed to do in order to keep Fubuki safe from him. The younger duelist swallowed a few times, then said, "I've been following Fujiwara for a while now, ever since the day you two had your duel. I still don't know what he's doing." 

"And you're telling us this why?" Otogi asked, motioning briefly for Fubuki not to say anything just yet. 

Manjoume looked over at them with a flash of fire in his eyes. "Because I'm not stupid. I know what you are, remember that, and I know what he wants: he wants you. And he's trying to use me to get you out of the way, Fubuki. And you two know it too, don't you?" 

"What if we do?" Otogi kept his cool gaze on Manjoume. "That still doesn't explain why you're just babbling all of this to us." 

"I'm not babbling!" Manjoume growled. "If you'd seen what I had to do tonight…someone's got to stop that idiot! And if you won't do anything, then I will!" 

Otogi still didn't budge an inch. "What do you think you could do?" He didn't mention that they had seen what Manjoume had to do that night. 

"That's what I was coming here to ask _you_ about!" Manjoume spat the words at him fiercely. "You know about this magic stuff and I don't." It almost appeared to cause him pain just to say that. "I've already had some ideas." 

Fubuki shifted around a little so he could sit up and look at him. "Like what?" He was as curious as Otogi to find out just what Manjoume could do to help them with what was going on. 

"We can't do anything if we don't know what he's really doing," the black Osiris said. "So I'm going to be planting one of my Ojamas in his dorm room, if I can, and another one of them in the room he's doing his research in over at the other dorm." 

Otogi glanced curiously at Fubuki, who shrugged back at him. "So what's that going to do?" 

Manjoume growled, clenching his fists. "Because I can _hear them_, dummy! They can see what's going on there, and then they'll tell me." 

"You hear your cards?" Otogi didn't sound quite as disbelieving as he might have in some other situation. After all, he was a djinn. Who was he to say what people could and couldn't hear? 

"It's not something I like telling people about," Manjoume muttered, staring out the window as he spoke. "I can hear and see monster spirits." The words were almost dragging themselves out of his mouth. "But if it can help stop that monster, then I'll listen to them all night long!" He turned his head the other way and glared at an empty spot of air. "No, that was not an invitation to say hi!" 

Otogi blinked a few times, staring at where Manjoume's gaze was directed. He didn't _think_ he could see anything, but he was almost certain he had a vague kind of sense of something being there. He'd had the same sense around Juudai a few times as well. 

"All right," he said, wanting to get Manjoume's attention back from wherever it was currently hiding. "If you can do that, then we'll do it. Once we know what he _is_ doing, then we can figure out how, or if, we can stop it." 

Manjoume nodded abruptly. "He's not going to be in his room for a while. He's wandering around doing _something_. He told me to go on back to the dorms." His lip curled proudly. "I don't like being told what to do." 

"I've noticed," Fubuki grinned at him some, and Otogi was not a bit surprised to see a faint hint of pink cross Manjoume's cheeks. Whether or not he wanted it to be, Fubuki's opinion was amazingly important to the younger duelist. That was probably how Yuusuke had begun to set his hooks into him. 

"If we're going to do this, then we're going to do it now," Otogi said, straightening up. "You two go over to the research dorm and plant the card wherever he's working. See if you can find anything else while you're there, too." 

He stepped over to Manjoume and held a hand out. "I'll plant one of them in his room. We should know a lot more by tomorrow night if we get lucky." 

"And if we don't?" Manjoume grumped as he pulled out his deck and began to sort through it. 

"Then we'll know more eventually," Otogi replied. "If I have to pin him down and ask him myself." 

The three of them left the room, Manjoume and Fubuki going over to the research dorm while Otogi headed down to Yuusuke's room. The division had been completely purposeful on Otogi's part. Fubuki was one of the elite students and could go to that dorm whenever he wanted, and if he wanted to bring along Manjoume as an assistant, no one was going to say anything to him about it. Otogi, on the other hand, could easily slip through any locks or barriers that Yuusuke had in his room to set the card there. 

There were locks, and there were barriers, and Otogi shuddered at the mental taste of them. They were repulsive, to say the least, but being a djinn gave him certain advantages. The barriers had been set to keep humans out. He wasn't a human. 

But where to set the card? He wished he had the ability to see those spirits, since maybe the small green creature this one represented, Ojama Green, would have an idea. He looked around Yuusuke's room, seeing nothing really out of the ordinary, then set it carefully on the top of a dusty bookshelf. Yuusuke obviously wasn't the tidiest person in the dorm, so he wouldn't notice this. 

"You could've knocked," a voice said smoothly, and Otogi whirled at once to see Yuusuke seated casually in the window seat, grinning a smug little grin. He was different, somehow. There was a darker, more cruel cast to his features, and Otogi shifted backwards a little on nothing but raw instinct. 

"I've really got to be going," he said, eyes shooting quickly towards the door. He was closer to it than he was to Yuusuke. He could make it. "Fubuki's expecting me back." 

"I'll just bet he is." Yuusuke purred softly. Before Otogi could take another step, the other was suddenly beside him, hands closing firmly around Otogi's wrists, just where the scars of cold iron were. "But he's not going to be seeing you again for a while." 

Otogi tried to speak, but pain shot up his arms from the scars as Yuusuke squeezed, and it was all he could do just to stay on his own two feet. The pain didn't stop there, though. With every breath it grew stronger, and he found himself toppling backwards, Yuusuke still keeping a tight grip on him. 

"I've got a message for you, from an old friend," Yuusuke whispered softly, then leaned forward until his lips brushed Otogi's ear. "Darkness never goes away." 

Then the pain was too much, and everything around Otogi was washed away in a blur of scarlet agony. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	22. Owner

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Owner  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Yuusuke's research room had nothing in there that could help them. At least there was nothing that _Fubuki_ could recognize. There were no clearly laid out details of the rituals that his friend had chosen to perform, and no handy notebooks that could be read to give away exactly what he was thinking. There weren't even any disks that they could smuggle back to Misawa and have him check into that would reveal Yuusuke's grand plans. 

All in all, given how easy it was for them to walk in there and plant the card, Fubuki was rather disappointed. He'd hoped for a secret mission that would actually be _fun_. Even with how serious this was, he wasn't wrong to want that, was he? 

He was just opening his mouth to ask that of Manjoume when a wave of raw nausea struck him, almost sending him to his knees with how powerful it was. 

"Fubuki!" Manjoume reached to try to help him up, but Fubuki waved off the helping hand. He wasn't too proud, not like Ryou would have been. He just didn't think he was ready to stand up yet. His stomach churned, his vision blurred, and he couldn't think straight at all. 

_Otogi._ The name rang in his mind like a bell and the crystal he'd kept in his coat pocket since that day on the beach almost appeared to be pulsating in time with his own heartbeat. Something was wrong with Otogi. Fubuki wasn't sure how he knew, only that he _knew_, and he had to do something about it. 

"Otogi's in trouble," he managed to scrape the words out carefully. "I have to get to him." 

Manjoume stared at him, then shrugged casually. "Fine. Let's get back to Obelisk, then." 

Fubuki accepted the hand this time, and managed to stay on his feet a little more easily than he had thought he would. He slipped one hand into his pocket and touched Otogi's crystal. As soon as he did, he felt a little stronger. "Come on!" 

Running across the island wasn't quite what he was up to, but he did it anyway. The sooner he could get to Otogi and find out what was going on, the better. 

The first place he checked was his own room, just to be certain the djinn wasn't there. He wasn't very surprised to find that he wasn't, and that nothing had changed from the moment they'd left. That meant there was one other likely place for him to be: Yuusuke's room. 

That required only a little more running, and in seconds they stood outside of the door. Fubuki tried to catch his breath before he knocked, though every instinct in him screamed to get on with it. Otogi _needed_ him somehow, and he didn't question how he knew any more than he questioned how his heart beat. 

"Fubuki? Manjoume?" The voice was quiet, but it sent none of the chills down them that Yuusuke's would have. Instead, it was a comfort to both, though Manjoume would be less likely to admit it. Marufuji Ryou had just stepped from his room and looked at the two of them curious. "What is it?" 

"There's something wrong with Otogi, and he's in there," Fubuki said as quickly as he could. "Yuusuke's doing something repulsive and we were trying to find out what it is." 

Ryou blinked once or twice, then nodded and came over to stand with them. "Then open the door." 

Fubuki did so at once, and all three of them were struck by the intense depths of the shadows in there. It was _nothing_ any of them had seen before. It didn't even appear to be possible. But there it was before them, thicker and deeper than the darkest of nights. 

"Come in, all three of you," Yuusuke's voice floated out of the darkness. "There's no need for you to stand out there. I have something you want, after all. Why not come in and try to take it back from me?" 

"Otogi isn't a _thing_! He's a person!" Fubuki snapped, and started forward without a second thought. 

"Fubuki, wait!" Ryou tried to hold him back, but it was of no use. Within a breath, Fubuki was gone from their sight completely. He glanced at Manjoume, then together, with no more need for consulation than that, they also followed him into the shadows. 

There could not be light in there. But within a few seconds, the three duelists had been reunited, regardless of not being able to see each other. Fubuki turned in place, searching without benefit of sight, and yelled fiercely, "Where's Otogi? What did you do with him, Yuusuke?" 

"Nothing…much." Yuusuke's chuckle came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "I'm just going to be taking him back to _who_ he belongs to." 

"Darkness…" Fubuki whispered the name, and Yuusuke's throaty chuckle sounded again. "How could you do that to him?" 

"It's not that hard, really. You could do it yourself if you wanted to, Fubuki." Yuusuke said. Between one heartbeat and the next he stood there, as calm as ever, arms folded across his chest. "Hand over the crystal. You won't be harmed, none of you will be. What I want won't hurt _anyone_. You have my word." 

Ryou snorted ever so softly. "What good is your word, if you'll hand over someone to evil without a second thought?" 

"The djinn belongs to Darkness." Yuusuke said that in much the same tones that other people might have said 'the sky is blue' or 'water is wet'. "I'm only returning misplaced property." 

"He isn't property. He's a person!" Fubuki snapped. "Now, where is he?" 

Yuusuke rolled his eyes. "If it means that much to you, look." He motioned with one finger, and there was Otogi, collapsed on his side, his arms raised partially over his head and chained together, with a chain leading off from the manacles on his wrists as if holding him to a wall that wasn't there. Fubuki started over there, only to have a brief flash of flame burst into existence before him. "No. You've seen him. That's all you need to do. Now, hand over the crystal, and your part in this will be over. I can even arrange it so you don't remember him at all. None of you will. You won't be abandoning a friend, because you won't know him." 

"Otogi…" Fubuki stared at the djinn, whose eyes were closed and pain was written across his every feature. He couldn't even be certain if Otogi was awake, much less aware of what was going on around him if he _was_ awake. "That…you've got him bound in iron, don't you?" 

"Steel, to be precise. This is the modern age, after all." Yuusuke corrected him calmly. "But it has the same effect on djinn as cold iron, apparently. He can't work any of those tricks of his while bound." 

"And he's being _burned_ by it!" Fubuki all but shouted. He'd seen those burn scars on Otogi's wrists, and the thought of them being even worse was revolting. 

Yuusuke only shrugged. "Hand me the crystal and I won't have to keep him like that anymore. He is a djinn, a slave of that crystal, and he _will_ obey me whether he likes it or not." 

**Watch your words.** A thick, sleek voice of shadows spoke, and something that was roughly human shaped appeared, visible in that same way that there was no light, but they all knew the others were there anyway. **He is mine, not yours.**

Yuusuke briefly flinched, then lowered his head. "I know, Darkness. But it's going to be the same thing." 

**Perhaps. Watch your words anyway.** Darkness came over to Otogi's side and stared down at him. If he'd had a face that was more than a suggestion of shadow, that face might have had an expression of sheer twisted delight upon it. **It _has_ been a while, hasn't it, my djinn?**

Fubuki couldn't help but be a little relieved as Otogi opened his eyes and stared at Darkness. "You." The word was pulled from a throat obviously tortured from screaming, but it was still Otogi's voice. 

**So pleased to see you recognize me. Even if I have changed a little.** Hints of mocking touched the dark tones. **You've put up quite the chase, just like before. But just like before, I have you now.**

Otogi tried to sit up and winced in pain as he did. "Leave the showmanship to Fubuki. He does it better." 

Darkness turned a little to shoot a look over at Fubuki, then looked back at Otogi in amusement. **You haven't changed a bit yourself. You still think that you can escape your rightful place as my property.**

"Cut with the small talk and let's get down to business. You want the crystal. Fubuki's not giving it to you. Therefore, keeping me is a waste of everyone's time. Let me go and I promise I won't bring the entire Obelisk building down on top of your heads." Otogi almost smiled, though there wasn't a single shred of joy in it. 

"We don't need _him_ to give it to us, really," Yuusuke broke in, that cocky smile back on his face. "It would be a little more convenient, but it's not _necessary_." 

Otogi shifted a little more, eyes narrowing briefly before he moved to look at Fubuki. "Get _out_ of here! Don't let them get that crystal, no matter what you do!" 

"I'm not leaving you here!" Fubuki snapped back. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crystal in question. "If I have to, I'll…" 

"Oh, for the love of…_put that away_!" Otogi shouted at him this time. "It's what they want, don't go waving it around where they can see it!" As much as he loved Fubuki, he had no sense sometimes! 

Four words from Darkness fell across the room like the hand of fate. **Take it now, Manjoume.**

And before either Fubuki or Ryou could react, Manjoume reached out and plucked the crystal from Fubuki's hand. His eyes were blank and unseeing, and Otogi groaned audibly. "I forgot…" 

"What is it?" Ryou wanted to know, his gaze flickering between Manjoume and Otogi. 

"Even though Fubuki held it, rightful ownership was split between him and Manjoume, since they both found it. The crystal's ownership passes by right of gift or right of death." Yuusuke was the one who answered, and there was nothing but smug satisfaction in his tone. "Bring it here, Manjoume, and I'll make sure you get _well_ rewarded for this." 

Manjoume took a few steps towards Yuusuke, the crystal in his hands. Fubuki started to reach for it, but even as he did, darkness flared up in front of him, and he couldn't see the other at all for several seconds. When he could, Manjoume stood in front of Yuusuke, who held out his hand for the crystal to be deposited in. 

"Excellent." Yuusuke purred as it fell into his hands. He closed his fingers over it, and with a wave of one hand the chains that bound Otogi vanished. "Come here, _slave_." 

Otogi slowly pulled himself to his feet and stood for a moment, weaving a little before he came over to Yuusuke, his head down and breathing heavily, as if just moving cost him more effort than could be imagined. He said nothing, only stood there. 

"On your knees," Yuusuke commanded, pleasure lacing every word. "Kneel before your master, slave." 

Fubuki's heart spasmed at the sight of Otogi, always so proud and free no matter what, slowly dropping to one knee before Yuusuke. He had to find a way to get that crystal back, or even better, destroy it entirely, to set Otogi free completely. 

"And now, I've got plans to make. We'll see you around, maybe," Yuuske laughed as he clamped one hand firmly on Otogi's shoulder, and the shadows swirled forth from Darkness, enfolding both Yuusuke and Otogi in them, and when they were gone, Fubuki, Ryou, and Manjoume were in Yuusuke's normally lit room, as if nothing extraordinary had happened at all. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	23. Search

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Search  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Manjoume sagged against the bed and shook his head a little as if he were afraid it was going to come off. "What in the…wasn't I just over _there_?" He motioned briefly towards where Ryou and Fubuki stood, then looked around a bit more. "What happened?" 

"You don't remember?" Ryou raised one eyebrow briefly, and Manjoume shook his head, wincing even as he did. "That creature had you hand Otogi's crystal to Yuusuke." 

Manjoume stared, first at Ryou, then at Fubuki, as if he couldn't quite grasp what Ryou had just said. Fubuki barely even looked at him. 

"They've got to be around here somewhere," he muttered, turning his attention all around the room. "Maybe there's a hint in here somewhere." 

Almost as soon as Fubuki said that, Manjoume looked up towards a bookcase, then hurried over there and picked up a card. "Did you actually hear anything or are you just waving your arms for the exercise?" he growled at something neither Fubuki nor Ryou could see or hear. 

Fubuki turned towards him as soon as he spoke. "What's going on?" 

"Ojama Green might be able to tell us something…unless he's just being his normal stupid self." Manjoume half-growled, more angry at himself for falling under Darkness's spell than anything else. "So, spill it." 

Ryou glanced at Manjoume, then Fubuki, with one eyebrow raised a touch curiously. Fubuki murmured, "He can hear card spirits. That's what he said, anyway." 

The Kaiser looked slightly disbelieving, but said nothing else as Manjoume stared down at the card in his hands. Finally the younger duelist looked up at the two of them. "Fujiwara caught Otogi while he was in here, and knocked him out. Green couldn't really be sure how, but he said something about 'Darkness never going away'. That was about all that happened until we got here." 

"So we don't know where he planned to go." Fubuki wanted to scream at the frustation of it all. "Or what he's going to do now that he has Otogi." 

Ryou glanced from one to the other of them. "What exactly is going on here?" 

"Simple. Otogi's a djinn, and Fujiwara's been busy selling his soul to evil. I think we covered that part already, though." Manjoume shoved the card back into his deck and stared out the window. "I think I know at least one thing he's going to be doing, though." 

Fubuki turned towards him quickly. "What is it?" He looked ready to jump out of the window if he had to in order to do something. 

"He still has to finish that ritual thing he's been doing. Only thing is, he could do that any time, or anywhere." 

Fubuki frowned, an expression that really didn't look that good on him. "You might not, but I know _when_, at least. Otogi figured that out. He has to do it on the new moon. And that's not for a few more days." 

"If he has control of Otogi, then he could do almost anything before then," Ryou pointed out. "Finding them is still the most important item at the moment." 

"And we'll need more than the three of us to do it." Fubuki declared. He started for the door. "Come on, I know just who we need to ask." 

Manjoume groaned the moment he saw where they were going. "You're going to ask _Juudai_, aren't you?" 

"What about it?" Fubuki shrugged. "Have you got any better ideas for who to help?" 

Manjoume grumped and Manjoume complained, but he was the one who slammed the door to the Osiris's dorm open and glared at him. "We need your help." 

Juudai looked up from where he and Shou had been dueling on the floor and blinked a few times cheerfully. "Hey, guys! What's up?" 

"Do you ever listen to anything anyone tells you?" Manjoume snapped. "I just said we need your help! Are you going to listen or are you going to sit there and stuff your face?" 

Given that Juudai, at that moment, really didn't have anything to eat on him that might not have been very fair, but Manjoume wasn't interested in fair at the moment. Juudai just shrugged some. "What's going on?" 

"Yuusuke has abducted Otogi, and we don't know where he's hiding him," Ryou said in his quiet voice, glancing around the Osiris dorm curiously, as if he'd never been inside one before. "We need all the help we can get to scour the island and find them as quickly as possible." 

Juudai was on his feet a second later. "You want help, you got it! We should get Misawa and Asuka to help, too! The more the merrier!" 

Manjoume would have protested if the thought of possibly being paired with Asuka to search around hadn't occurred to him. Instead, all he said was, "Let's get started. The more time they've got to hide, the harder it's going to be to find them." 

Juudai was already on his communicator, sending messages to the other two, while Shou gathered up their respective cards and Hayato left off whatever he was doing up in his bunk to come down and start planning with them. There wasn't really enough room for all of them to sit there and discuss things, unfortunately, which was why Manjoume found himself outside of the room with Juudai right at his elbow, babbling about how they could split up and cover more ground that way. 

_Doesn't he ever shut up?_ Manjoume grumbled to himself as he stared down at a large map of the island that Misawa had brought along when he showed up. _He just keeps going on and on and on and on._ Something about that chatter was a little comforting, as much as it irked him to admit it. So he didn't admit it. Not even to himself. 

"All right, I think you should all know this," Fubuki spoke seriously, something that happened so seldom that _everyone_ looked at him, from sheer shock if nothing else. "Otogi isn't human. He's a djinn, and he's tied to a crystal that Manjoume and I found a couple of weeks ago on the beach." 

Shou and Hayato, the only ones there to whom that was actually news, looked more than a little disbelieving. 

"Fujiwara's also been doing some freaky stuff that involves turning into a complete jerk and a bastard and he's got some kind of demon thing helping him out," Manjoume added, with a look that dared them to deny what he said. "So if you find him, don't fight him. Just let one of _us_ know." 

Shou blinked a few times, then asked, "What could you do that we couldn't?" 

"Just let us know." Ryou said quietly, and Shou dropped his head almost at once, nodding. There was very little he wouldn't do if his big brother asked him to do it. 

"We can search the island in pairs," Juudai said cheerfully, as if all of that had gone completely over his head. As far as Manjoume was concenred, it had. "Ryou and Shou can look over this way," he pointed to one section of the map. "Misawa, you and Hayato can look over here." He pointed again. "Fubuki, Asuka, why don't you guys check over this way?" 

Manjoume mentally groaned, and then again out loud as he realized that this left him with Juudai. Somewhere, somehow, someone out there had to highly dislike him, he decided. Once he found out who they were, he was going to pummel them. A lot. 

Oblivious to this, Juudai went on, "Manjoume and I can check around here." He motioned towards the inner, forested parts of the isalnd. "We can all keep in touch with our PDAs, and if we find anything, let everyone else know as fast as possible. Everyone got it? Good!" 

Manjoume was still grumbling to himself as he and Juudai started to head towards their designated search area. _Why did this have to happen? Why did it happen to me?_ He wanted to strangle that Darkness creature if he ever got his hands on him. How _dare_ he mess around in Manjoume's head? No one else was allowed in there but him! 

"This is just so weird, really." Some of what Juudai was saying seeped into his head, and Manjoume tried to ignore it. "Are you sure you don't know where they'd be? I mean, he didn't leave any info laying around conveniently in your head, did he?" 

"If I knew, I'd say something." Manjoume growled. He would. If it meant that he wouldn't have to hang out with Juudai right now, he would. Juudai _still_ made him a little nervous, and he had yet to figure out why. It was vaguely like how Asuka or Fubuki made him feel, only different somehow. 

Just because they knew _what_ Fujiwara had to do and about when he had to do it wasn't enough. Because they still didn't know where he had to do it at. Could it be the same place as before, or could it be somewhere else? What would having Otogi do to his plans? Could the djinn take him somewhere where they couldn't find him so they were all running around in circles right now for no reason? 

He racked his brains, trying to think of anything that could possibly help. Nothing even wanted to faintly glimmer in the back of his mind, no matter how hard he tried. He scarcely even noticed when they explored the area that Fujiwara had used for the previous two rituals, except to be glad that he had cleaned it all up. Just thinking about what it had looked like was repulsive. 

"Manjoume…" Juudai touched his arm just a little, and the other looked at him, the protests he would have normally had dying on his lips as he did. "You're really mad about this, aren't you?" 

"Of course I am! That bastard set me up and tricked me and forced me to hurt one of my best friends!" Manjoume growled, hardly believing that he was even being asked this. "You don't even know what I had to do right here! This was disgusting! I don't care how much I like Fubuki, I wouldn't have just handed over Otogi like that!" 

He heard the words, and winced when he realized he'd acutally said them. If he hadn't said them in front of Juudai, he might've tried to take them back. Instead, all he did was glare a little angrily, and then stalk on ahead, looking for any other traces of Otogi or Yuusuke that he could possibly find. 

Juudai watched him go, a faint little hint of something that could well have been pain in his eyes as he did. Then he looked over to where Hane Kuriboh was whistling at him, and smiled a bit. "Find anything, partner?" 

The answer could only have been understood by someone like Juudai or Manjoume, whose hearts were so linked to the cards that they could hear virtually any of them. But whatever it was, Juudai sighed a little sadly at it. "So we keep on looking. Let's go." He set off after Manjoume, determined to find Otogi and Fujiwara no matter what. He didn't want to ask just what Manjoume had meant by what he said, and he even less wanted to know what _he_ was actually feeling. Dueling was easier than anything else, and it came more naturally to him than anything else in the entire world except maybe making friends. So that was what he focused on most of the time. 

As the two of them moved onward, the shadows behind twisted and twitched a little: or would have to someone with the eyes to see them properly. Within that darkness, the greater Darkness laughed softly at the idiocy of humans, and returned to where his captive and his soon to be host awaited him. 

**To Be Continued**


	24. Chains

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Chains  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

The chains were different, but they had the same effect on him regardless, burning his heart and soul if not his body this time. Now, the chains were of magic instead of iron or steel, binding him to obey Yuusuke, and by extension, Darkness. He didn't doubt for a moment that Darkness would be taking Yuusuke's body before very long, and then he'd have to put up with the shadow spirit for ages. Just what he'd begun to hope he'd escaped forever. 

"It _has_ been some time, hasn't it, slave?" Darkness was there in front of him, the faintest of smirks on what could've been a face if he'd had one of his own. Otogi was still beginning to understand just what this creature really was, and he didn't like what he knew now any more than he'd liked what he'd known before. 

"Not long enough." He grated the words out coldly. "Forever wouldn't have been long enough." 

Darkness laughed, circling him briefly. Otogi had to remain where he was, since that was what Yuusuke had commanded of him: kneeling in the center of a circle of iron. He barely had move to room, much less get comfortable. Neither Yuusuke nor Darkness cared a bit for that. He wasn't there to be comfortable. He was only there to serve them. 

His thoughts ranged back to his friends, both the ones that he'd had before his first capture, and the ones he'd made since his release. He didn't blame Manjoume. He'd been in agony, but he had caught a glimpse of the other after he'd been released from the shackles in Yuusuke's room, and he recognized the touch of Darkness upon him. It wasn't his fault. Besides, it was just easier to hate Darkness. He had so much practice at it. 

"They've already begun to lose hope in finding you, you know," Darkness whispered, leaning over the imprisoning circle to murmur into his ear. "It's almost the dark of the moon. You know what happens then, don't you?" 

"You look like a person for the first time in ages?" Otogi taunted the best that he could at the moment. It wasn't his _best_, but he would make it better if…no, _when_ he had the chance. 

Darkness only smiled. "You're quicker than he is. I'd almost enjoy using your body for a host, if I could." Otogi was thankful that he couldn't. Being enslaved by Darkness the way he already was had been bad enough. Having to feel that filth inside of his mind would drive him insane. 

"It's not like you haven't done it before. You had his body in my world." Otogi said. "You just keep using the same old tricks, Darkness. But that's all you can do, isn't it?" There. That was a little better. 

The spirit growled a touch, and Otogi pulled out one of his saucy smirks. It still hurt just to be near the iron, but saying this to Darkness was better than cowering away from him. "I'm right, aren't I? You just keep taking the same person from world to world, and never really getting it right. You should try something new. Because my friends are going to find him, and when they do…" 

"When they do, there won't be anything that they can do to stop me," Yuusuke broke into the conversation as he stepped into the room from wherever else he was. Otogi had no idea of _where_ they were, only that it was someplace that had at least two rooms to it: the one where he was imprisoned and the one where Yuusuke went when he wasn't in there. He wasn't sure why the other kept him in here. As long as he had the crystal, he couldn't disobey and leave or bring anyone else here. 

_Probably just doing it to be annoying._ It was working. Very well, too. 

Otogi just rolled his eyes at his erstwhile 'master'. "Right. Let me guess, you've read all the books about how to be the best evil villain you can be and you're determined that you're not going to do anything that they expect you to and this will guarantee your success." He'd heard that before. 

Yuusuke smirked briefly. "Something like that. It's nothing more cliché than what _you_ were just spouting, you realize." 

"The difference being I'm right and you're not." Otogi snarked back quickly. Yuusuke only grinned that annoying grin of his, and the djinn decided it was time to try to get a little information. "Where are we?" 

"A place they can't find." Yuusuke didn't want to give him that information either. Otogi flexed his fingers against the floor he knelt on, and almost wished Darkness would go ahead and possess the idiot. At least he'd only have one of them to deal with then. 

Yuusuke watched him for a moment, then turned his attention towards the shadow that was Darkness. "It's almost time. Another few hours before the moon has reached the darkest point." 

"Good. You've worked hard for this." Darkness's tone was all but that of a parent praising a child. It sent Otogi's stomach churning in his usual reaction to the beast of shadows. "You'll soon be one with the darkness, completely and forever." 

"I can hardly wait." Anticipation laced Yuusuke's voice, and Otogi closed his eyes, trying not to shudder visibly. "Is something wrong, _slave_?" 

Otogi didn't bother to open his eyes to answer this. "You do know that he's just going to take your body and wear it like a suit, don't you? You're not going to get anything that you think you are. You'll be lost forever in the darkness." 

"I will _be_ the darkness," Yuusuke corrected him all but primly. "That's what I want. I want the power and the immortality of the shadows." 

"Why?" Otogi asked, still remaining where he was and still with his eyes closed. He wondered if this tactic might work. It was worth trying. "You've got me. I can give you power. I can make you immortal. You can do anything you want as long as you've got me, and there isn't anyone who can stop you." The words made him sick to say, regardless of how true they actually were. 

He hoped for a few moments that Yuusuke was actually listening to him. Perhaps he was, until Darkness spoke. "All of that can be taken away, simply by someone taking his crystal, Yuusuke. Or even destroying it. But what I will give you will be forever no matter what." 

"_Can_ it be destroyed?" Yuusuke sounded a touch curious. "You've never said." 

"Yes." Darkness laughed in his usual style, with no humor and a great deal of contempt. "And no." 

"You could answer without the riddles, just once." 

"Ah, but what would be the fun in that?" Darkness replied to Yuusuke, then went on. "The crystal can only be destroyed by one who has darkness flowing in his veins by birth but who denies it by choice. That was the nature of the spell I wove into it when I bound him to it. There's no one like that in any world. All those who have the darkness in them accept it freely and openly." 

Otogi frowned to himself; it did sound impossible. That was just the kind of twisted rule that Darkness _would_ put in there as well. There had to be a way around it, but who knew where someone like that could be found? And even if they could be found, who was to say they would be in any condition to break it? They might like the idea of an enslaved djinn. Just because they denied the darkness didn't mean they were necessarily a good person. 

"Do you have everything ready for the last rite?" Darkness changed the subject, and Otogi paid even more attention now. If they took him along, he might have a chance to do something. Just what, he couldn't be certain. It all depended on what they did. But even the slightest chance could be something he could use. 

"Yes. As soon as the moon reaches the darkest point, I'll be ready." Yuusuke replied. "And what about _him_?" 

"He'll come with us. I have something special in mind that will make certain he never, _ever_ tries to disobey, even if he could." The smirk was clearly audible, no matter that Darkness had neither face nor lips to smirk with. Otogi's nausea increased, and he crouched a little lower in an attempt to keep himself from throwing up on the spot. 

There was a dark double laugh from the both of them, and Darkness continued, "I'm sure you'll love this, Yuusuke." Otogi could feel him leaning closer to Yuusuke, and he heard the faintest hints of whispering, but nothing he could clearly make out. He suspected Darkness was doing that on purpose, just to tease him, and clenched his fists even harder. There was going to be a reckoning. He'd promised himself that since the day he'd been bound to the crystal. He even had a glimpse of how to get free now. All that was required was the time to do it in. 

"I do love it." Yuusuke laughed, and there were hints of Darkness's own voice in that. "It's perfect." 

"I know." Darkness strolled his way back over to Otogi. "Oh, don't worry about it, slave. You're going to find out what we're talking about very soon, after all." 

"I don't remember saying that I want to know." The djinn growled back briefly. That was a lie; he wanted more than anything to know what they were planning. But they didn't need to know that he wanted to know. 

Frankly, that sounded in his head like something Jounouchi would have thought. That scared him a little, but in a pleasant, homey kind of way. He already knew what the young fighter would've done in this case: pounded his way through Darkness and Yuusuke both. That would've been interesting to see. And he hoped he would see it, or something like it, someday. 

He flinched suddenly as two hands came down on his shoulders, one a solid and human hand, the other something as weightless as the shadows themselves. The circle of iron was gone, freeing his powers, but he dared not make a move against either of them, even if the crystal bondage would have permitted him. 

"Take us to the clearing on Academy Island where I've done the other two rituals," Yuusuke commanded him. There was such smugness in that voice; Otogi wished he could grant his _own_ wishes and knock some sense into the duelist. "Make certain no one else can see us when we get there, either. This is going to be a special private party…just for the four of us." 

_Four of us?_ Otogi knew that Yuusuke wasn't stupid or incapable of counting. Which meant… 

His heart began to quiver and shake at the thought of what that could mean, even as his power flared up all around them to obey the command. A soft whisper of energy passed over them, and when it was gone, they stood in that clearing. Yuusuke seized Otogi by the hair and dragged him forcefully over to a tree, where he bound him with a steel collar and chain. Otogi knew he was doing this painfully on purpose. There was just no need for that kind of handling, when the crystal forced him to obey regardless. 

Then Yuusuke did something that _really_ confused the djinn: he took out the crystal and placed it on the ground before him, out of Otogi's reach, but plainly visible. _This is a trick. A trap._ Combining that with what Yuusuke and Darkness had already said, and Otogi knew what they were going to be doing. He was paler than death itself as Yuusuke began the last of the dark rituals, and a word passed his lips. 

"Fubuki…" 

**

To Be Continued

**


	25. Bargain

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Bargain  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Fubuki wasn't supposed to be this unhappy when he was near the ocean. It had always been his natural environment, second only to being watched admiringly by large numbers of people. But he couldn't even bring himself to have a swim right now. Somewhere out there, Otogi needed his help, and he didn't know where or how. He just knew that was what he had to do. 

_Three days._ After the initial searching of the island, the group of friends had went to Sameshima and told him everything, getting him caught up on what had happened. Now every student, teacher, and aide on the island was busy searching as well. They didn't know about Otogi's nature, of course. That didn't need to be told to everyone. But they were all looking anyway. 

And to no avail. No one had seen anything. Fubuki was almost on the verge of tearing his hair out. Only the fact he wanted to look his best when they did find Otogi stopped him. 

They would find him, too. It didn't make a difference on how long it would take. It _would_ happen. 

He didn't know where the others were right now. Probably searching somewhere. But he walked by the beach, his feet leading him without him hardly being aware of it to where he and Manjoume had found that shimmering crystal. 

"Where are you?" he muttered under his breath, wanting to look into those deep green eyes again, eyes that spoke so eloquently of a magic that was greater than all the spellcasting in the world. In any world. 

_Fubuki…_ His name drifted across the sands, and the showman looked up, trying to figure out where it had come from. He knew he'd heard it. But where from? 

"Otogi?" he called, hoping that the other would hear him. He was magical, he could hear Fubuki from anywhere. Couldn't he? He hoped…he ached for it to be so. 

_Fubuki…_ Again the word came whispering. _Help me._

Fubuki sat up as if someone had stung him. That was all he needed to hear. "Where? Where are you?" Otogi needed him, and he would be there as quickly as he could! 

_Help me…the clearing…Darkness…_

Fubuki didn't care about Darkness. What he cared about was getting Otogi away from them as quickly as possible. When that was done, then he would think about the dark spirit. He knew what Otogi had to mean, the clearing in the woods where they'd seen that unspeakable monstrosity that Yuusuke had performed. He ran as quickly as he could, leaving the beach behind and aiming for the wooded parts of the island. 

Somewhere in the very deep back parts of his mind, he wondered if he should have sent a message to the others, or even went and gotten them before he hurried off. He dismissed that quickly. He could work better on his own for this. He'd get in there, get Otogi, and get out before Darkness and Yuusuke even knew he was there. Then everyone could get in there and do whatever was necessary to stop them. Or whatever. 

Getting to the clearing didn't take all that long. Or rather, it shouldn't have. But as soon as he passed into the woods, something changed. It had been a clear, bright day, right up until he'd entered. The second he did, shadows and silence fell all around him. He couldn't hear a single bird chirping as they had been only a few short seconds ago. He could scarcely see enough to put one foot in front of another with any kind of security. 

It was almost like being back in Yuusuke's room, only worse. There'd only been so many places you could go there. But this darkness stretched out in every direction, and even when he stepped backwards, thinking he'd try to get into the woods from somewhere else, the darkness remained just where it was. 

_Fubuki…_ The word drifted by again, and this time he was certain that Otogi sounded as if he were in pain. _Help me._

Who needed to see? He knew where he'd went in, and he was pretty sure he knew where the clearing was from there. Fubuki hurried onward, stumbling now and then over rocks or tufts of grass that he couldn't see, but he never let it bother him for more than a few seconds. With every step he took, the fact that Otogi was being hurt, probably tormented by iron and steel, burned brighter and brighter in his mind. 

And who knew what kind of horrible things he was being forced to do for Darkness and Yuusuke? Fubuki had probably the best imagination on the entire island, if not one of the best in the entire world, and he could easily think up a dozen disastrous wishes that either of those two could want to force the djinn to grant. 

It hurt to think that one of his friends was doing this, too. Yuusuke hadn't been that bad of a person when they'd met. It had amused Fubuki to no end that he, Ryou, and Yuusuke all had birthdays in the same week, one right after the other. From the first moment he'd known that, he'd declared they were all birthday-brothers and therefore it was fate that they were to be best friends forever. 

_Yeah, well, best friends don't go around stealing other people's friends and trying to claim eternal power and whatever else he wants like that, either._ It took a lot for Fubuki to get angry, but what Yuusuke had done was definitly pulling it off. 

Between one step and the next, he was there. The clearing appeared around him, and was just as brightly lit as it could be. Not by the sun, however. Fubuki drew to a halt and tried to figure out what was going on. It had been early afternoon when he'd heard the call, but now, at least here, it was nightfall. Only stars lit the sky, and four torches, each set to one of the directions, lit this area. 

"Yuusuke? Otogi?" Fubuki turned around, wanting something that resembled an answer. "What's going on? Where are you?" 

"Here." At Yuusuke's voice, Fubuki whirled again, and this time he saw his friend standing only a short distance away, where he had _not_ been only moments earlier. "So glad that you could come, Fubuki. This wouldn't be complete without you." 

Fubuki clenched his fists, more from frustration than a desire to hurt someone. "Where's Otogi?" 

"There." Yuusuke gestured briefly, and the djinn, chained to a tree, came into view. Fubuki's eyes widened to see how pained Otogi looked, more so than before. Otogi didn't even lift his head to look at him, though Fubuki thought he was awake. 

"Otogi…I'm here…" He took a step closer, only to see two shadowy figures rise up from the ground. He couldn't get a good look at them, but the fact they were preventing him from getting to Otogi was all he needed to know that they weren't his friends. "Yuusuke! Let him go!" 

"Certainly. But there's a condition to it." Yuusuke sounded ever so lightly amused, and Fubuki looked at him fiercely. The expression really didn't fit his usually amiable and cheerful face at all, but for once he didn't care. 

"Condition?" 

"Watch. That's all. Watch what I do, and when it's over, you can have him back." Yuusuke toyed with a knife between his fingers lightly. "Watch, and don't interfere. It's not that difficult. You watched what happened the other night, after all." 

Fubuki shuddered at the memory, but he had no options that he could see at the moment. If watching whatever Yuusuke had planned would make him able to free Otogi, then he'd do it. "Fine. Just don't take all night." 

"Oh, I won't. This won't take long at all." He motioned Fubuki to the far side of the clearing, opposite from Otogi. Once the other was there, he began to speak again, in a language that Fubuki didn't recognize at all. The words themselves sounded almost attractive, but the tone was something else altogether, something revolting and twisted. 

Fubuki stared at him, not removing his gaze for a second. He thought there were other noises coming through the woods, but as each minute clicked by, they appeared to mean less and less, and watching Yuusuke was all important. 

Darkness pooled around the other duelist's feet and slowly began to creep up his legs, transforming his normal clothes into something dark and dramatic. Fubuki swallowed some as he realized something of what was going on at last. Yuusuke wasn't going to be around anymore…he'd be one with the Darkness and the shadows…and there was no way he could think of to stop it. 

Maybe it had been too late from the moment Yuusuke had made his decision, and Fubuki had no idea of when that had been. But as he watched, he determined something else: he wouldn't forget Yuusuke as he had been. No matter what. That was the friend he had made years ago. 

Then the shadows circling Yuusuke reached to his waist, and he held out his arms. Fubuki watched, hardly believing his own eyes, as Yuusuke cut his arm, and let three drops of blood fall into the darkness itself. As they faded away, a hand of shadows formed, holding within it a dark mask. Fubuki couldn't see it very clearly from where he was, but it sickened him just to see it. 

Yuusuke reached for the mask and set it on his face without a breath of hesitation. As he did, a faint aura of shadows wrapped all around him, and when it faded, he wore what appeared to be a long robe and a cape, both of blackest night. He glanced down at it, and sniffed briefly. "Too old-fashioned," he declared, and his voice was _not_ that of Yuusuke. Fubuki hadn't heard it often, but he knew in his heart who it was: Darkness. 

With a brief wave of his hand, the robe and cape melted into an outfit more suited to the modern world, but still in black and matching the mask a little better. Darkness turned towards Fubuki, a mocking little smirk on his face. 

"And we meet at last, Tenjoin Fubuki." 

Fubuki glared at him and started forward, only to stop as Darkness lifted a warning finger. Something about this beast spoke of raw power, and Fubuki found a tiny thread of caution from somewhere. "I want Otogi." 

"You're certainly not the only person who does." Darkness smirked briefly. "I know quite well what Yuusuke promised you, but I have a condition of my own before you'll be permitted to go near him, much less even _see_ his crystal." 

"What are you talking about?" 

Darkness circled him briefly and nodded slightly as if to himself. "This body won't last more than another few seconds. Yuusuke wasn't as strong as he thought he was, nor as intelligent. He wanted to be part of the Darkness forever, and he will get what he wants. But there are always prices, and consequences." He leaned in a bit towards Fubuki. "My condition is this: when this body fades away, take the mask and put it on. It will enable you to see through the shadow spell that Yuusuke used to hide the crystal from everyone but one linked to the darkness. Then you can take it and the djinn and be gone from here." 

There had to be something Fubuki was missing, but the thought of being rid of Darkness was attractive. Without Yuusuke, he wouldn't be able to remain in this world, right? What harm could it do? 

"Fine. If that's the way you're going to play it." He folded his arms and delivered his best glare, a respectable copy of Ryou's, towards Darkness. The other only laughed a little. 

"Have fun with my djinn. I know that _I_ did," Darkness taunted, even as the shadows around him began to boil up, wrapping long tendrils around him. "He's so very eager to please." 

Fubuki would have punched Darkness if everything hadn't happened so quickly just then. The shadows enveloped their master, and in between one breath and the next, all that remained at Fubuki's feet was the mask. He stared down at it, then over to where Otogi still knelt by the tree, apparently unaware of everything that was going on. He reached down and picked the mask up, shuddering as he did. It _felt_ slimy and clammy, even though there was nothing on it to make it feel like that. 

"We'll be out of here in no time," he said quietly to Otogi, then took a long breath, and put on the mask. 

**To Be Continued**


	26. Domination

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Domination  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"So, we've looked over the entire school, all of the dorms, and in everywhere else that we could find." Manjoume stared over the map for what felt like the millionth time and marked off all the places where either they or some other student had looked. "And we haven't found anything." 

"It is entirely possible that Otogi is concealing them somehow, and that we won't find them until we can find a way to break through that." Ryou suggested. Manjoume turned a quick blazing look on the older duelist. 

"And how would you suggest we do that?" 

"Guys, guys!" Juudai waved his hands quickly, trying to break in before anything got out of hand. "There's some way, we just don't know what it is yet! No need to start fighting!" 

Manjoume grumped under his breath as he looked back at the map. He could almost swear that he saw this hideous thing in his sleep. It wasn't as if Otogi and Fujiwara were the only people missing anymore. Fubuki had vanished earlier that day. Some of the girls had seen him by the beach, and they reported he'd suddenly turned and run into the woods, and that was the last they'd seen of him. 

_If he's hurt…_ Various half-formed plans of retribution shot through his mind. He couldn't pick out which one he wanted to try first. There were too many of them. 

"Has anyone seen Fubuki?" Asuka came up as she asked the question, and Manjoume shook his head quickly, sitting up a little straighter. 

"I talked to a couple of the girls earlier," he answered, telling them what he'd been told. "We can go look for him if you like." 

Asuka made a sort of non commital noise under her breath, and he held his own, hoping she at least wouldn't _object_ to going there. Then her eyes flicked over behind him, and lit up with joy. "Fubuki! And Otogi!" 

Everyone turned, and indeed those two were coming down from the woods. Manjoume frowned; there was something slightly odd about Fubuki, but he couldn't place it. For that matter, there was something different about Otogi, but he couldn't figure _that_ out either. But they both looked all right, for the most part. 

"Hey, guys! What happened?" Juudai bounced eagerly over as if they'd done nothing more dangerous than go for a walk on the beach. "Everything okay?" 

"Yes. Everything's fine." Fubuki even sounded just a touch different, a little more serious perhaps. Manjoume didn't want to think that he sounded darker…or that his voice held an edge that he had heard in his own mind before. 

_No…_ There was no way that could happen, was there? He slowly got to his feet and started over there. Maybe he could come to an answer if they talked? 

"Fubuki?" Asuka stepped over, one hand reaching out. "Are you sure you're all right? You sound a bit weird." 

"Oh, I'm fine, Asuka. And so is Otogi. Aren't you?" Fubuki glanced over towards the djinn, who nodded a little. 

"Well, glad to see that's over with. What happened to Yuusuke?" Juudai wondered. "Is he okay too? Did you take him to the infirmary or something?" 

"No. He was able to finish his bargain and he vanished into the shadows." Fubuki didn't sound quite as upset about that as someone might have thought he would. Manjoume was almost certain he saw a tiny hint of a _smile_, and that was just wrong! Fubuki would never react like that, never! 

But the other kept on talking. "I was able to find where he'd hid Otogi and the crystal and we got out of there. I wish…" There was something that was now a bit more like a frown, but it still was off, and Manjoume didn't trust it. The closer he got, every step he took, he could feel that something was wrong. His Ojamas were muttering in their cards, nothing coherent, but the fear was audible. He glanced briefly over to Hayato and Juudai, and was not surprised that both Hane Kuriboh and Des Koala looked as nervous as he was certain the Ojamas were. 

"You wish what?" he asked suddenly, folding his arms across his chest. If this was really Fubuki, he'd forgive him in a heartbeat. But if it wasn't… 

"I wish…" Fubuki dropped his gaze, then looked back up at them, and the cold mockery there was visible to all. "I wish you could all see how stupid you look right now!" 

Everyone jumped some, even Manjoume. "What are you talking about?" Asuka asked, reaching for him again. Fubuki, or whoever it was, knocked her hand to the side. "Fubuki!" 

"Wrong. There is no Fubuki here. There is only _Darkness_." He snapped his fingers at Otogi, who nodded slightly. At that, the usual uniform of a third year Obelisk Blue student melted away, replaced by an outfit of dark and shadows. Fubuki's face was now concealed by a black mask with a reddish jewel of some kind on the forehead and the eyes protected by what looked to be light blue glass. 

"Nice outfit but don't you think the mask is a little too dramatic?" Juudai asked, the faintest hint of something a bit more serious in his voice. Manjoume still wanted to smack him for it. This was dangerous! 

"Not at all." Fubuki, or Darkness, or whatever, smirked. "But as much fun as it is teasing all of you, I have something even _more_ impressive to deal with." He crooked a finger at Otogi, who took a few steps closer to him. "As you may have noticed, my djinn is properly mine again. I went to _far_ too much trouble once to get him, and I'm not going to let him get away again. So kindly get rid of all of those notions of saving him. He doesn't even want to leave me, do you, slave?" 

Otogi shook his head. "I belong to you, master." His voice was almost too calm, and held virtually no inflections at all, as if it were a robot of some kind speaking. 

"What did you do to him?" Manjoume snapped, and thunder began to roll overhead. He scarcely noticed it. All that mattered was finding out what was wrong and fixing it as quickly as possible. "Tell me!" 

"I doubt you'd understand it if I told you. Suffice it to say that he knows his place now." Darkness looked a touch thoughtful, or so Manjoume thought he did underneath the mask. "But that's all in the past. I have work to do, and it's time I got started. This place here will do for a beginning location." He glanced back at Otogi and motioned towards the volcano. "Reignite that. It'll get the attention I want quickly." 

"_What?_" Every voice there except Otogi and Darkness's echoed the question, and the dark spirit smirked at the sound. He didn't even bother answering them, only looked at the enslaved djinn. 

Otogi turned his attention towards the volcano. His eyes narrowed, and something that may have been a whiff of emerald sparkles whooshed over the mouth of the volcano before a low rumble sounded and the island began to shake. Black smoke started to pour from the volcano's mouth, and clouds gathered overhead, thicker and darker than any ever seen before there. Lightning crashed through the heavens, and thunder rolled, making it impossible to hear anything. 

"What in the hell are you doing, Otogi?" Manjoume managed to scream when there were a few seconds of silence. Electricity almost appeared to sing along his veins at the crashing thunder and lightning, but he ignored it for the moment. There were far more important things to worry about than the special effects lighting up the sky. 

The djinn gave no answer, only stood waiting, all of his attention taken up by Darkness. Manjoume tried to get closer, only to find he couldn't. Something stood in the way, as invisible as the air, but as impenetrable as stone. 

"You don't really need to get this close to serve me," Darkness smirked at him. "But you should know that already, Manjoume. You're the one responsible for all of this. You're the one who handed over the crystal in the first place. Without that, none of _this_ would be happening." 

Manjoume stood, briefly stunned, then shook his head. He had enough guilt of his own for other things. He wasn't going to take this on. "Try your mind games somewhere else. I've quit playing with you." 

"Perhaps." Darkness chuckled a little, but it wasn't a very nice sound at all. "I suppose you should all either leave, or start deciding what position you want when this world belongs to me. I _might_ be generous enough to give it to you, if you can please me enough. But you'd better hurry. I don't have much patience, and it's already beginning to run out." 

Manjoume growled, hating feeling as helpless as he did at the moment. There had to be a way to stop all of this and to free Otogi and to free Fubuki from that demon's invasion. Just because he didn't know it yet didn't mean that it didn't exist. 

When he looked away from them, he could see people streaming down to the beach from the school, some screaming, some yelling, some silent but scared, and all of them wanting to know what was going on. 

"Get out of Fubuki!" Juudai snapped suddenly, and Manjoume wanted only to groan. Sometimes if something wasn't shoved right into the other boy's face, he just couldn't realize it was a problem. Manjoume hoped that he'd get over that. Someday. "You don't belong in there! He didn't want you in there!" 

"On the contrary, he did. It was the only way he could free my slave." Darkness smirked briefly. "Or so he thought. The fool never was the brightest, it seems." 

Juudai stepped closer, his fists clenching, and eyes blazing. "Let's settle this the Duel Academy way: with a duel! I win, you leave his body. You win and you can…you can stay in it!" 

"You call those stakes?" Darkness laughed even as a duel disk appeared on his arm. "When I win, _you_ will become one of _my_ slaves. I don't know what I can do with you just yet, but I'm certain I'll think of something. You can at least be ornamental, once my djinn is done with you, if nothing else." 

"Do you even know how to duel?" Juudai snapped, presenting his own duel disk. 

"Better than you can imagine," Darkness all but purred the words out. "If you're certain you want to do this." 

Juudai was about to open his mouth when Manjoume's hand descended on it. "He's not going to duel you, Darkness. _I_ am." He could feel everyone else staring at him and ignored them. This was what he needed to do. The guilt might not be his, but the responsibility was. He _had_ been the one with Fubuki the day that they'd found the crystal, and it was _his_ Ojamas who had pointed it out. So now it was up to him to set it all right. "You don't have any say in it, Juudai. This is my duel." 

A crash of thunder and lightning right over their heads set the seal on his words, and Juudai stepped back. There was something in the back of his eyes as he looked at Manjoume, something that could have been friendship or respect or possibly a longing for some fried shrimp. Manjoume personally chose to take it as the longing for fried shrimp. Anything else would've been far too awkward at the moment. 

He pulled out his deck and shuffled it quickly, shooting the occasional glare over to his opponent. Darkness shuffled a set of his own cards, and Manjoume wondered where he'd gotten them from, as he hadn't appeared to have them when he'd first shown up. But there were still other things to worry about. 

"You will regret this." Darkness did not say it as a threat. He spoke the words as a promise of what was to come. Manjoume didn't care. The duel was what counted, and saving Fubuki and Otogi somehow. 

"Let's do this," was all he said, and drew his first five cards. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	27. Duel

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Duel  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Darkness looked over the first hand he'd drawn and didn't bother to stop himself from smirking. This was going to be an _interesting_ duel, to say the least. He had all of Fubuki and Yuusuke's knowledge to draw upon for how to play, and both of them had been fantastic duelists. Manjoume didn't stand a chance. He might have thought he did, but he didn't. 

_I'll draw it out,_ he decided, not wanting to crush the idiot right away. Besides, if he gave a good show, then the people here would see how smart it was to follow his commands. He could get himself a good support base without hardly having to lift a finger. 

"You can go first," he decided graciously. He paid only the mildest of attention to Otogi as he settled into a dueling mindset. The slave was there mainly for decoration purposes at the moment, after all. He wouldn't be of any use in this. 

Manjoume examined his own cards, then drew his first one for the turn. This wasn't looking quite as good as he would've hoped, but at least he had something. And beyond that, he had strategy. He had experience. And he had the burning need to kick Darkness to the curb. 

"All right. I'll play Soul Tiger in defense mode!" He placed the card on his disk and watched as the fierce tiger shimmered into existence before him. It had no attack points, but it was one of the most powerful defense monsters available, and it would protect his life points until he could get something more effective out. "That's it for now." 

Darkness nodded a little and drew his own card. "That's what I thought you'd do," he sneered a little. The conversation was as much a part of the game as anything else was. Anything that could whittle your opponent's confidence down was helpful. 

_I could crush that pitiful defense monster of his,_ he thought, picking which card to play first. _But why go to the effort so soon when it'll be more fun to see what else he thinks he can do against me?_

"I play Koumouri Dragon, in attack mode!" That would also be interesting to see if Manjoume played another monster and tried to attack him. Losing life points didn't matter that much in the long run. It was who lost them all, not who lost a few along the way, that mattered. "And I end my turn." 

Koumouri Dragon wasn't one of the most powerful monsters around, but it would be a good placeholder until he got one of his _real_ dark dragons out there. He all but mentally caressed his deck, looking forward to seeing Manjoume's reaction to some of the special surprises he had in there. 

Manjoume wasn't bothered by the dragon. He had ways of dealing with creatures like that. They weren't the prettiest ways in the world, but they'd do the job, and that was what counted. He drew his card and set it with the others. He still didn't have anything that was really _worth_ playing, except…yes, that would do nicely. 

"I play Copy Cat! It copies one of your monster cards, and since you've only got one out, now _I've_ got a Koumouri Dragon too!" With a flash of light and sparkles, Copy Cat transformed from its original look to a precise duplicate of Darkness's Koumouri Dragon, giving a triumphant roar as it did. 

Darkness only rolled his eyes. "There are easier ways to admit I'm the better duelist," he taunted. "You don't have to copy me like that." 

"Yeah, whatever." Manjoume snorted. This guy so needed to be taken down a few pegs, and he was ready to do the job. He'd set it in attack mode, though he knew that attacking would just deprive them both of their monsters at the moment. Until he knew more about how Darkness played, he didn't want to do that just yet. Even with his Soul Tiger out, there was always a chance he could pull off some dumb combo that would devour Manjoume's life points. After dueling Juudai as often as he had, Manjoume wasn't one to take _some_ chances. "It's your turn." 

"Why, thank you," Darkness smirked and drew his card. The smirk grew only wider when he saw what it was. Indeed, it was time to get on with this amusement! "I think that it's time you met a friend or two of mine. I summon Red Eyes Black Chick!" 

Manjoume blinked as the adorable baby dragon burst into existence, and he heard a few coos from the side. That had to be from Momoe or Junko. They'd probably come down with everyone else when the volcano had started to erupt and now were watching the duel. He turned his head just enough to see them both there, and staring at the little beast. 

"You know, that is the _bad guy_ over there," he reminded the two Oblelisk girls. "And he's possessing Fubuki's body, so if he wins, you're never going to see him again." 

Momoe and Junko both blinked in surprise, looking at Darkness. The dark spirit ignored them both, his attention on the duel, and the girls pouted in near unison. 

"Kick his ass, Manjoume!" Junko declared, waving her hands excitedly in the air. "You can do it!" 

"Yeah! Make him pay for taking Fubuki's body!" Momoe echoed a moment later. Manjoume had the feeling she wanted to say something else on the subject of taking bodies, but luckily (and he'd never thought he'd think that), Darkness interrupted. 

"If you've all finished being idiots, I'm not done yet." He growled. "If you think the Black Chick is so cute, you're not going to think so in a moment. Because I sacrifice him to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon!" 

Even as he swept the card off of his disk and replaced it, the holographic image changed, the Chick growing and transforming into a powerful dark dragon, one of the most powerful of its type. Manjoume stayed firm on his feet as the creature bellowed its awakening to the world at large. 

"Is that all?" he asked lazily, not wanting to give away any kind of nervousness at all. Yes, he had cards that could deal with that, but they were all in his deck at the moment, and not where he needed them, out on the field! Just what he'd expect from those lazy jerks… 

"Not even close." Darkness smirked. "I attack your copy Koumouri Dragon." 

The words were ones he'd heard before, with other monster names, but almost never in a duel that could mean so much to everyone. The Red Eyes leaned forward a little and blasted a dark spray of flames at the Koumouri Dragon on Manjoume's side of the field. As it vanished in a swath of holographic light, some of the flames curled around Manjoume himself, and he bit back a cry of pain as his life points went down by nine hundred. He shook his head and rallied back; that wasn't so bad as damage went, really. He'd delivered worse, and he could take worse. 

"Is _that_ all?" he asked again, his voice shaking only a tiny bit. The Duel Disks transmitted attacks to their owners very well. KaibaCorp technology was the best of the best, after all. 

"For now." Darkness shot a slightly irked glance at the Soul Tiger as it guarded the rest of Manjoume's life points. If it weren't for that creature, he would have sent his Koumouri Dragon over to take out fifteen hundred more of them. But he had plans on how to deal with that little annoyance. 

Manjoume took a few deep breaths, and drew his next card. This still wasn't looking the best for him. He had a couple of cards in his hand that _might_ work, but his duelist instincts told him it wasn't time to play them yet. He was learning to listen to those instincts. So he played what he could at the moment. 

"I play Matatabi Cat in defense mode, and that's it for this turn." He glanced again at the cards in his hand, and hoped that his instincts were right. If they weren't, then he was going to lose, and lose painfully. He knew what the consequences for winning were. But for losing…that hadn't quite been discussed. He didn't know if Darkness intended to enslave him, the way he'd said to Juudai, but he thought that might be a possibility. 

All things considered, he would rather be dead. So he also suspected that wasn't one of his options. He glanced quickly at his two monsters. They weren't the strongest at all, but they were what he had to work with. He could only hope that Darkness would somehow start to get the kind of draws that he himself was having. Either that, or he'd somehow get a turnaround and get _real_ monsters. Or… 

"Excellent." Darkness was obviously not getting his kind of draws just yet. The evil beast smirked, and Manjoume hated the way that looked on what he could see of Fubuki's face. That was still _Fubuki's_ face, not Darkness's, no matter what. "I summon Mirage Dragon, in attack mode." 

Manjoume's eyes flicked from his creatures to Darkness's, and he had a sudden very bad feeling about all of this. 

"First of all, since your Matatabi Cat cannot be attacked while there are other Beast cards on your side of the field…I'll get rid of that Beast! Red Eyes Black Dragon, attack Soul Tiger!" Darkness commanded. His dragon blasted flames forth once again, and Soul Tiger gave up the ghost, fading away into nothingness. 

Worried murmurs came from the watchers, and Manjoume heard Misawa's solemn voice, "If he destroys Manjoume's other monster, he'll be able to attack him directly." 

_No kidding. Did you think I didn't notice that?_ He wanted to say that out loud, but he had to keep his focus on the game for right now. Darkness still wasn't done. 

"Now that _that's_ over with, Koumouri Dragon, attack his Matatabi Cat, now!" Darkness commanded, and once again, the order was obeyed. And yet again, Manjoume's defense monster became nothing but a memory. 

But that still wasn't the end. Darkness smirked wickedly as he gave the last order, and there was nothing that Manjoume could do to stop it. He held five cards in his hand at the moment, but none of them were of any use right then. He could see the basics of his hoped for strategy in them, but right _now_…there was a Mirage Dragon bearing down on him with sixteen hundred attack points. 

And that bite _hurt_, and he was all but convinced he actually felt the weight of the beast on him as it savaged him. Only the fact he wasn't actually injured, except for being down to a mere fifteen hundred life points, told him otherwise as Mirage Dragon went back over to Darkness's side of the field. 

"And that will end my turn," Darkness declared, looking far more satisfied about that than he had at anything else in this entire duel. "Whenever you'd like to surrender, do feel free. The sooner the better, actually. I won't always be generous enough to _let_ you give up." 

Manjoume ground his teeth. This guy was _really_ getting on his nerves. It was worse than Juudai. At least Juudai was too dumb to mean any harm by it. "I don't give up. Ever." His brothers had found that out the hard way. So would Darkness. If the cards would just co operate. He trusted his insticts, but his instincts had just let over half of his life points get round into the dirt! 

"Is that because you're one of those brave and heroic types, or just because you're too stupid to know when you should quit?" Darkness laughed cruelly and waited to see what Manjoume would do next. 

**

To Be Continued

**


	28. Defeat

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Defeat  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Manjoume drew his next card and breathed a mental sigh of relief. This could mean things were going to turn around. There was only one way to find out. 

"First, I play The Unhappy Maiden," he said, placing the card in face up defense mode. It wasn't much of a defense card, really, but the special effect made up for it. 

Darkness barely looked as if he noticed. Something so weak was scarcely worth the time it would take to destroy it. He'd noticed the ability it had, but what did it matter? So his Battle Phase would end once he destroyed it. It would still be gone, and he'd be able to tromp whatever else Manjoume came up with next with ease. 

Then, Manjoume pulled another card out of his hand. "And now I play Enchanted Fitting Room!" 

_That_, Darkness took note of, if only to laugh as Manjoume's life points went down to seven hundred and fifty due to the effect of the card. "You're going to sacrifice half of your life points for an effect that _possibly_ could get you three monsters that wouldn't even have any special abilities, and would be low level weak things at the best? There are easier ways to lose." 

Manjoume only grinned at him, and those who had seen his duel against his brother Chosaku recognized that grin. "You'd be surprised what a little monster can do sometimes. But before you start saying I'm wasting my life points, let's see what my deck's got in store for me." 

He drew four cards, and displayed them, his eyes glinting with joy as he saw what he had. It was about time they showed up. "Well, I can't really do anything with Pot of Greed right now, so that goes back into the deck. But I think you should meet these three little freaks." 

With a flourish, Ojama Green, Black, and Yellow all appeared on the field. Darkness stared, his lip curling in revulsion. 

"You're using _those_ things?" He looked vaguely nauseous at the very thought. Manjoume remembered what that had felt like, all those months ago. But now he knew better, and he was going to teach Darkness the same. 

"You'll see what I can do with them. But my turn's over for now. What have you got for me?" Manjoume sneered over at the other duelist. Darkness thought he knew what was coming. Manjoume had some surprises in store for him. 

The dark spirit just snorted. He wouldn't waste any of his dragons on those creatures, even though trampling them would win him the duel. Those filthy _things_ wouldn't dirty his dragon's feet or fire. He'd find another way to bring this idiot down, and he'd drag it out as long as he could. And if he could find a way to get rid of those monstrosities without his dragons having to do it, he would. He had a few cards that would do the trick nicely. 

For now, he drew his own card, and laughed cruelly. "Perfect! I play Graceful Charity. I'm sure you know what it does, so I won't bother telling you." He drew three cards and examined the hand he had now. It was getting better and better! He was going to win, there was absolutely no doubt at all about it. "I'll discard these two cards to my graveyard," he did just that, "and then I will sacrifice my Red Eyes Black Dragon to bring out my personal favorite monster, the Red Eyes _Darkness_ Dragon!" 

Black smoke curled up, surrounding the Red Eyes Black Dragon until it was completely concealed from view, and when the smoke faded, there stood the new dragon, viscious and cold and a perfect complement to Darkness himself. 

"And I know you can't wait to find out his special effect, so I'll tell you." Darkness preened over his beautiful beast. "He gains three hundred more attack points for every dragon in my graveyard, and right now, there are three of them there: the Red Eyes Black Chick, Rare Metal Dragon, and Spear Dragon, thanks to what I discarded due to Graceful Charity. So that's nine hundred more points than he started with, for a grand total of thirty-three hundred attack points!" 

Manjoume wasn't impressed. "So. You can add. Are we supposed to gasp in awe? I've seen Misawa do it a lot faster, and with a lot more style." 

"I can do more than add. I can subtract as well. Watch me reduce your monsters by one!" Darkness threw his arm forward dramatically, pointing at Manjoume's Unhappy Maiden. "Darkness Dragon! Crush that annoying little wimp! Those _Ojamas_ don't deserve to be destroyed by you!" 

Manjoume wanted to sigh in relief. He'd hoped that Darkness would react like that. Sure, he'd lost his one defense monster, but if the draws went his way, he wouldn't have anything to worry about. 

The holographic girl vanished, and Darkness ended his turn. Whatever else Manjoume brought out, he was certain he could deal with it as quickly as he had that little bit of nothing. The Ojamas weren't even worth thinking about. He couldn't imagine why anyone would even want them in a deck. They were so useless! 

At any rate, Manjoume would learn the results of relying on something so weak. Darkness decided the first thing he would have his new slave do once Manjoume served him would be to burn those Ojama cards. He'd even start the fire for it himself. 

"So now it's my turn," Manjoume drew and broke into a grin, not even trying to hide it. "You think my Ojamas are useless? Well, sometimes they are. But sometimes, they're the best weapon I've got." 

"You should get some better weapons, then." Darkness interrupted with a smirk. 

Manjoume's grip on his cards tightened a little, but he kept on smiling. "Now that you mention it, maybe I should. What do you think of this for a start? I play Ojama Delta Hurricane!" 

Darkness didn't have the time to be taken by surprise. The three Ojama brothers merged into a whirling hurricane of laughs and giggles and destruction, and a moment later, his side of the field was completely empty, all of his monsters destroyed. He stared in disbelief. "What did you do?" He was going to _kill_ this fool! Being his slave was too good for him! 

"That's what Ojama Delta Hurricane does. If I have all three of the Ojamas on the field when I play it, it destroys all of your monsters. But I'm not done yet!" Manjoume laid out another card. "I play Masked Dragon! And it attacks you directly, Darkness!" 

Darkness refused to scream at all as the dragon lashed into him. It wasn't that much, only fourteen hundred points, taking him down to two thousand six hundred. Compared to Manjoume's seven hundred and fifty, he was comfortably in the lead. "Is that all you're going to do?" 

"I don't think I need to do anything else right now," Manjoume replied. "It's your turn now." 

Darkness straightened himself and brushed off his coat a little. "You'll pay for that," he said it almost pleasantly as he drew his card for the turn. He laughed a touch as he looked at his hand. "And sooner than you think as well. You might've destroyed my Koumouri Dragon and my Red Eyes Darkness Dragon, but I like them both too much to let them sit around where they are." He all but purred out the words. "And of course, having the Mirage Dragon in the graveyard will simply increase my Darkness Dragon's power once I bring him back. All you've done is seal your own fate." 

"Prove it, then," Manjoume retorted. "Or are you all talk and no bite?" 

"I'll show you what kind of bite I have!" Darkness declared, throwing a card onto his disk. "I summon my second Koumouri Dragon! And it attacks your Masked Dragon!" 

Manjoume winced a little as his dragon was destroyed and his life points were reduced by another hundred. But that was also what he'd _wanted_ to have happen. 

"When my Masked Dragon goes to the graveyard because of battle, then I can summon any dragon I want from my deck, as long as it's attack points are fifteen hundred or less. And I'm summoning Armed Dragon, Level Three!" Manjoume declared, pulling out the card and placing it in attack position on his disk. 

Darkness shook his head briefly. "You enjoy playing with those weak cards. I can't fathom why." 

"Oh, you'll see why soon enough." Manjoume grinned. "Anything else? It's still your turn." 

The masked spirit glared for a moment, then set out a card face down. "There. I'm done for now." And this duel was almost over with. He could hardly wait to see the look on Manjoume's face when it was done and he'd lost. It would be worth losing his precious dragon for that. 

Manjoume all but laughed out loud as he drew. This was exactly what he'd needed. "Now, since it's the standby phase, you'll see why I wanted that dragon…because now, I'm sacrificing it to summon Armed Dragon Level _Five_!" With the appropriate flourish, his small dragon grew into a much larger one. 

Darkness quickly ran through the combined memories of Fubuki and Yuusuke, searching for what the Armed Dragon series could do. He hadn't really cared to research it before, but now… 

When he recalled it, his fingers tightened more on his cards. Then he did mental math. There was no way that the new Armed Dragon could beat him by itself. Either Manjoume was going to have to summon something else to go along with it or he'd have a chance at his next turn. And when he had that chance, he would _win_. Decisively. 

"Armed Dragon Level Five has a very nice special effect," Manjoume said. "All I have to do is discard one monster card from my hand, and one of your monsters that has an equal or greater attack strength goes right to the graveyard." 

Darkness sneered at him. "Go ahead. Every dragon in my graveyard just makes my Darkness Dragon that much stronger!" 

Manjoume grinned as he discarded a card. "That was Despair from the Dark I just got rid of, with an attack of twenty-eight hundred. So your Koumouri Dragon is gone. And since my dragon hasn't attacked yet, I think I should do that. Now!" 

The Armed Dragon lashed into Darkness, slicing two thousand and four hundred life points out of him. He stumbled back a little, trying to catch his breath, and glared over at the other duelist. "You think that's going to hurt me?" His life points were down to two hundred at the moment. "Let me tell you something. That card I laid face down? It's Red Eyes Spirits. When I activate it on my next turn, I'll get my Red Eyes Darkness Dragon back, and I'll _crush_ you and your little dragon and your Ojamas!" 

Manjoume grinned a little more. "There's two things wrong with that, Darkness. You should read your own cards better. For one thing, Red Eyes Spirits can only bring back a Red Eyes that was destroyed during the turn it's activated. Your Darkness Dragon has been in the Graveyard too long. And for another…" He started to pull another card out of his hand, and Darkness stared, growling furiously and helplessly. "Even if you could, you're not getting another turn to use it anyway." 

A kind of hush fell over the entire island, as if to hear exactly what Manjoume was playing. "I play Thunder Crash!" In majestic counterpoint, a thunderbolt struck deep in the woods, and the earth shook under their feet. "All four of my monsters are destroyed, and for each one of them, you take three hundred points of damage. That's twelve hundred…" He couldn't help the smirk. "But you only have two hundred life points left. So…you _lose_, Darkness!" 

Another thunderbolt, this time a holographic one, circled around the three Ojamas and the Armed Dragon, and squeezed them until they were gone. Then it shot across to Darkness and slammed right into his chest, knocking him off of his feet. 

The moment Darkness fell, Otogi stumbled as well, one hand going to his head, and the other reaching vaguely towards the fallen form. He barely had a chance to take three steps before he toppled over, as unconscious as Darkness himself was. 

Manjoume grinned even as Darkness hit the dirt. "I win." 

**To Be Continued**


	29. Waking

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal  
**Chapter Title:** Waking  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

Asuka rushed over to check on her brother almost before his body actually hit the ground. Manjoume joined her a second or two later. "I think he's all right," she said. Even as she held him, Darkness's outfit spun away back into the shadows, replaced by what Fubuki had worn before. The mask remained where it was for a heartbeat, then hints of shadows swirled around it, and it transformed into a card bearing only a representation of a mask. 

Manjoume picked it up, wincing at the feel of it in his hands, and started to tear it. This thing was the cause of their problems, he felt, and getting rid of it would only be a good thing. 

"Wait," Otogi's voice was weak and a little shaky, but when Manjoume looked at him, his eyes were open and clear. "Don't do that." 

"Why not? It would mean Darkness can't ever come back." Asuka said. "Right?" 

The djinn shook his head a little. "Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know enough about what Yuusuke was doing to say for sure. But I'd rather not take the chance it might hurt Fubuki as well if you did that." He winced a little as he levered himself to his feet and started to brush off the dirt from where he himself had hit the ground. 

"Are _you_ all right?" Manjoume asked, frowning some. "Why'd you pass out, anyway?" 

Otogi snorted and motioned a little towards Fubuki. "Because when you beat Darkness, it banished him into that card. Magically speaking, I'm linked to the spirit of whoever has that crystal, and he had it. If something happens to their spirit while they have it, it affects me, to an extent." He stretched, his joints popping briefly as he did, then reached to take the card from Manjoume, who didn't protest this time. "But I'll be fine." 

He came closer to Fubuki, then dropped down beside him on one knee to take his hand. Manjoume was not surprised to see Otogi's glorious green eyes shimmering with emotion. "Wake up soon," he whispered softly. "We've got a lot to talk about." 

There was no sign of acknowledgment from Fubuki at all, and Otogi reached to gather him up. Asuka shook her head a little before he could, though. "We'll get him back inside. I think he might need to go to the infirmary first. But you should rest a little yourself too." 

The djinn smiled just a touch. "You're probably right." He didn't mention that he could have brought both Fubuki and himself back to his room in a twinkling of an eye. For one thing, he wasn't positive if he could. He hadn't used _much_ of his power, but what he had done had been intense, and he still had a lot to fix. "You take him there. I'll be along soon." 

Asuka, Manjoume, Juudai, Ryou, and Misawa all converged to carry Fubuki back up to the Obelisk Blue building. The crowd of students parted as they came through and stared after them once they'd passed, awe in every motion and muttered word. Otogi stifled the weak little laugh he wanted to laugh, then looked at the card in his hand. 

He could still feel Darkness's spirit there, and it sickened him. Was Fubuki never going to be free of the monster now? There was no way to tell. _Yuusuke._ He hadn't known the other student the way Fubuki had, but maybe it would be better if no one talked about it that much anymore. That would require a large scale mind control, and while that was within his power, it wasn't going to be something he did. 

After all, there were other things to do at the moment. He put the card away, and determined to talk about it with Fubuki when he got the chance. For now, it would be kept out of sight and out of reach of everyone. 

He glanced up at the still exploding volcano, with the rising edge of lava about to tip over the side. Soothing it back down was difficult, but he managed to get it done. By the time he did, and by the time he'd finished repairing all the other damage that had occurred on the island from Darkness's little power display, he was drenched in sweat and could scarcely put one foot in front of the other. 

_Can I do it?_ He estimated how much power he had left and how much it would take to get him to where Fubuki was. There was no way that he'd go anywhere else, no matter what anyone else thought. He _needed_ Fubuki, in a way that he couldn't put into words other than that. And more than needed him, he wanted to be with him, to be sure that he was all right, to feel his arms around him, and to have his own around Fubuki. 

Finally, he decided it didn't matter if he thought he could or not. He'd do it anyway. Besides, with the crystal back in Fubuki's possession, it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. He simply relaxed and let himself be pulled back to it. 

Seeing the crystal walls of his prison around him again sent a chill down his spine, even knowing that he could get out whenever he wanted. Fubuki had made that very clear within those first few days. Otogi had permanent permission to come and go from the crystal as he pleased. Neither Yuusuke nor Darkness had bothered to negate that permission, if they'd even known it had existed. 

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Even doing it like that had taken a large slice of what little strength he had left now. He wondered if he'd ever be free of this enslavement. What Darkness had said about how to do it hovered in the back of his mind. Someone of the darkness by birth, but who denied it by choice. It felt as if he should know who it was, or the type of person at least, but nothing and no one came to mind. 

_For all I know it's someone who hasn't even been born yet. Or who lives back in that world._ That would be just his luck. There was someone who could free him, but they didn't even live in the same universe as he did anymore. 

For a moment, he could feel the crushing weight of the invisible chains that tied him to slavery and the crystal all around him. Forever bound to someone else's will, even if that someone was as wonderful as Fubuki, was not something he looked forward to. There had to be another way… 

_There is. And I'll find it, somehow._ He was not going to stop searching for a way. Yuusuke had had a lot of books to research in. Maybe there'd be something in there, if he got the chance to look. 

He took a few more breaths, then turned his attention outward, seeking that link that bound him to Fubuki. The slavery wasn't something he enjoyed, but the connection to Fubuki was one he thought he could live with. He transformed into smoke and poured out of the crystal, reforming near him. Everyone else was still there, and he looked as if he were just very deeply asleep. 

"How is he?" he murmured, even as he whipped up a seat for himself and sat down, his fingers wrapping around Fubuki's. 

"The nurse says he'll be fine. He just needs to get some rest." Asuka said. He nodded, not taking his eyes away from Fubuki's face for so much as a second. "Is there anything you need?" 

"No," Otogi shook his head some. What he needed was Fubuki back, and they couldn't give that to him. Only time could. 

Perhaps sensing some of that, Manjoume started to herd everyone else out of the infirmary room. "Let them have some privacy!" he all but hissed. "Come on! Let's go!" 

As the door closed behind them, Otogi turned his full attention towards the sleeping Fubuki. He wanted to do something so badly that it hurt, but he didn't know what he _could_ do. Healing physical injuries was child's play for him, but this wasn't something physical. This was all wrapped up in the mind, and a little in shadow magic. Or maybe a lot in it. He couldn't be sure. 

There was nothing he could do but sit there and be ready when Fubuki did wake up. He watched Fubuki quietly, thinking of all that had happened in the last few weeks. He'd never dreamed that it would come to this when he'd first poured out of the crystal, in raw fury that Darkness had even _dared_ to imprison him and ready to unleash all of his anger at the first available target. 

Only that target had become the object of more than his anger. Those warm eyes, that ready smile, the cheer that never faded, no matter what…all of those had wrapped their way into his heart, and held no signs of fading. The spell created a link between himself and his master, whether he liked it or not, but experience was beginning to show that this link had very little to do with emotions on either end of it. He certainly hadn't felt like this about Yuusuke or Darkness! 

So this was real. He brushed his fingers across Fubuki's palm and whispered, "I love you." He knew it had to be silly. He was a djinn. Fubuki was a human. Their lifespans were immeasurably different, and that was only _one_ of the barriers. But it made no difference. He said it again, and again. With every time he said it, everything that his brain said should get in the way mattered less and less. 

Otogi stopped paying attention to the time. What did time matter, when they were together, even if only one of them was awake right now? He knew he was talking, but he didn't really listen to what he was saying. He told stories about some of the adventures that he and his friends had had before he'd been caught and sealed. He talked about how much he loved Fubuki, and how much he wanted him to wake up so they could talk about that together. He didn't care if anyone else heard him, though as the day crept by, he was certain some people had wandered in and out. His recitation hadn't stopped in the least. 

When he couldn't put it off any longer, he made himself some food and ate, but didn't leave Fubuki's side. There were times when he _had_ to, but he kept those to the bare minimum. He even slept in that chair, shifting it briefly to a cot that would fit beside Fubuki's bed. 

How long he stayed like that, he couldn't have told. Later, Manjoume said Fubuki had been out for almost eighteen hours, and Otogi had been by him for virtually the entire time. Otogi was willing to believe that. He was a little tired, but not as much as he could have been if he were human. Djinn did have much more stamina than humans, in many different ways. He looked forward to exploring those ways with Fubuki, in time. 

Otogi had held Fubuki's hand so long that he almost didn't notice when it began to move a little. When the realization sank into his mind, the djinn jerked briefly, eyes flying all the way open from where they'd barely been half-open before. He'd been mumbling something about one of Jounouchi's old enemies, Hirutani, and how they'd finally convinced him that Jounouchi wasn't going to be a part of his gang, and had just reached the interesting part with the bullwhip and the lightning rod. 

"Wish…I could've been there to see that," Fubuki slowly whispered as his eyes opened. Otogi stared at him, hardly believing what he had heard. Not the words themselves, since that was pure Fubuki, but just the fact that Fubuki had said anything in the first place. Eighteen hours wasn't so long, but part of him had feared in the deep depths of his mind that he'd never hear him speak again. 

"You're awake," Otogi whispered. "You're really awake." 

Fubuki smiled a little, and his fingers tightened more around Otogi's. "Didn't think I'd leave you, did you?" He hesitated a little, a hint or two of shadows of memory in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Otogi. I shouldn't have listened to him. To either of them." 

"It's all right." Otogi shook his head some and squeezed back. "You're not the only person in the world who has made mistakes, you know. In any world." He found a grin inside and tried it on. It felt pretty good. "Trust me." 

Fubuki smiled back, and the shadows began to fade almost at once. "Always." He looked almost hesitant for a second, then asked, "Otogi, I could hear you…a lot of the time just now. I just couldn't say anything back. You said…" 

Otogi nodded a little. The words hadn't been said between them before, but he meant them with every bit of his heart. "I love you." 

For a heartbeat Fubuki just sat there, a foolish grin on his face. Then he leaned forward, put one hand behind Otogi's head and pulled him closer the best that he could. The kiss was soft and warm and full of all the passion and love possible between the two of them. When they parted, Fubuki murmured it quietly, but with no less intensity than Otogi himself had said it. "I love you, too." 

**

To Be Continued

**


	30. Wish

_**Legal Disclaimer:** The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.  
**Story Title:** Chains of Crystal**  
Chapter Title:** Wish  
**Romance:** Fubuki x Otogi  
**Timeline:** Effectively AU season 1 of GX._

"So, the research dorm's going to be closed?" Otogi wiggled his toes in the warm sand, content to feel Fubuki's arms around him. In the month since Darkness's defeat, almost nothing out of the ordinary had happened at the Academy, unless you counted the occasional pop quiz. Juudai maintained that quizzes like that were the work of dire evil, of course, and Shou and Hayato backed him up completely. Manjoume just rolled his eyes and tried to pretend he didn't know them.

"Right. Principal Sameshima thinks it was just too dangerous, after what happened." Fubuki sighed briefly at the thought of Yuusuke. Otogi had given him Darkness's card shortly after he'd been released from the infirmary, and he'd kept it hidden in his dorm room ever since. No one was really certain what could happen if it were destroyed, so he decided just to keep it away from everyone. Besides, who knew…there was a chance that they could find a way to bring Yuusuke back someday with it.

"He's probably right." Otogi leaned his head against Fubuki's chest. It was edging closer to winter, but the island remained warm, as tropical islands tend to do. That was fine with him. He preferred the warmth anyway. Especially the warmth named Fubuki.

"I wish we could've saved him." Fubuki murmured the words quietly. "I miss him, Otogi. He was my best friend. Before he really got into all of that, we'd have so much fun. We played some of the best pranks this place has ever seen. I should tell you about some of them. You'd love them."

Otogi nodded a little. "I bet I would." He did, too. That was just the kind of person that Fubuki was, and that he believed Yuusuke had once been. When the research dorm was cleared out, he intended to take the books Yuusuke had been studying and keep them for himself. He would do anything he could for Fubuki, and if that meant finding a way to restore Yuusuke to him, he'd do it.

"And I wish we could free _you_ too," Fubuki bent his head a little to whisper in Otogi's ear. "I don't like the thought of someone trying to take you away from me again."

"I'm not all that easy to take away from you," Otogi replied, leaning more into Fubuki's embrace. "Most of the people here still don't know what I am. I don't know why, but they're chalking most of what happened up to just a random storm and the volcano have a case of gas." He laughed briefly. "It's like they don't want to know that anything weird could happen here."

"I suppose not." Fubuki couldn't really blame them. Some of it he would have liked to have forgotten as well. If it weren't for Yuusuke being his best friend and the danger that Darkness represented to the world at large, he probably would've thought about forgetting.

Both of them fell quiet as they ran out of things to say for the moment. There were still the occasional awkward silences between them, but this wasn't one of them. It just felt too perfect to soil with words for the moment.

Despite them being silent, there was still plenty of noise going on all around them. Classes were over for the day, which meant that there were students virtually everywhere now. All they had to do to see most of their friends was just look up. Shou and Hayato were playing on the edge of the water, splashing at each other gleefully. Manjoume and Asuka sat on a blanket under an umbrella a little way up on the beach, with a picnic lunch spread out between them. Manjoume looked as if he were too absolutely happy for words. Fubuki knew exactly how he felt.

Juudai was deeper in the water, enjoying himself with a good swim, but look around as he might, Fubuki couldn't see Ryou anywhere. Not that he could say he was very surprised about that. Ryou tended not to associate with too many people if he could get around it. _Besides, I think he knows if he showed up in swim trunks, the girls would be all over him._ Ryou had never made any indication that he preferred either gender, but he _had_ made it quite plain that the thought of being crowded around with flocks of girls was fairly annoying. For that matter, he didn't appear to enjoy being crowded in by flocks of guys, either. Fubuki doubted sometimes if Ryou even wanted to date anyone, male or female. If that was what he wanted, that was fine by Fubuki. But he did think Ryou's disposition might be a bit kinder if he had someone in his life.

But try as he might, there wasn't anyone he could think of who might actually _fit_ him. And he had other things to concern himself with at the moment than Ryou's love life. His friend was a grown boy, after all. If he did run into someone he thought would be interesting enough for Ryou, he'd deal with that then.

Right now, what mattered the most was being here with his friends and with his Otogi. _My boyfriend._ Even if he held that crystal, he would never think of Otogi as his djinn or his slave. That just revolted him, especially after having had a taste of what it was like to move to another's will. He didn't remember everything that had happened while Darkness had run his body, and most of what he did remember was wrapped up in vague images and half-smothered emotions. It was still more than enough to convince him that freeing Otogi as quickly as possible was the right thing to do, even if he hadn't already believed that.

He ran his hands gently through Otogi's black hair, enjoying the way his fingers looked in the dark mass. He couldn't think of much that he didn't like about Otogi anyway. Even his bad traits were appealing.

Fubuki leaned forward and brushed a kiss across Otogi's cheek. "Want to go for a swim?" The question was asked for more than one reason, of course. Seeing Otogi in swim trunks was always a treat, and of course, he wanted to swim.

"I thought you'd never ask." Neither of them made a move to get up right away, of course. It still felt too good just to hold each other. It got even better at night, of course. But that was just between the two of them, and no one else needed to know about it.

Otogi finally slowly pushed himself to his feet, sighing a little as Fubuki's arms fell away. "If we're going to swim, we should get going. It's going to be dark soon."

Fubuki grinned as he got to his own feet. "So? Swimming under the stars is _romantic_!"

"Breathing is romantic around you." Otogi teased, smiling even as he said the words. Fubuki only shrugged.

"Everything is romantic if you look at it the right way," he pointed out. Otogi had to admit he was right. Besides, who was he to argue with the acknowledged Wizard of Love and the Blizzard Prince? Fubuki was the first person he'd ever been in a relationship with who had known exactly what he really was and to whom it didn't matter. Fubuki leaned in a little closer to him and whispered, "And it really helps if you have the right person to be romantic with, too."

That, Otogi _really_ couldn't have argued with, even if he'd wanted to. He leaned over just enough and kissed Fubuki. He meant it only to be a little one, but the more they kissed, the longer they kissed, and each drew a little closer to the other…

"I thought you two were going to go swimming." Misawa stood just a little distance away, torn visibly between amusement and disapproval as he watched the two of them. "Or did I hear wrong?"

"You should get yourself a girlfriend, Misawa," Fubuki declared brightly. "Maybe you'd stop scowling all the time."

The Ra student looked mortally offended just at the thought. "I do not scowl all the time! And I do not need a girlfriend. There are more important things for me to be doing."

Fubuki laughed even as he and Otogi headed away to get changed. It took neither of them more than a minute or two, and soon they were out there in the clear waters. Fubuki enjoyed himself, darting headfirst into the waves as they came in, taking a deep pleasure in the way the water felt against his skin. It was almost as soft and caressing as Otogi could be. He grinned just at the image. He couldn't get the djinn out of his thoughts these days, nor did he want to.

After several minutes, he turned over on his back and watched the rest of his friends sporting about. Misawa had taken up a position on a blanket and was working on something. Probably math problems. It was just as well he was doing it on his own notebook instead of trying to draw them in the sand, the way Fubuki had seen him trying to do one time. And there was Ryou at last. Fubuki smiled to see him simply standing under the nearest convenient tree and watching the others, until he came down and spoke with some of them. Fubuki was too far away to actually hear them, but when Ryou left, Manjoume, Misawa, Asuka, and Juudai went with him.

_Huh. Wonder what that's all about._ He started to swim closer to the shore before the group of them were too far away, then stopped when he saw two things: Chronos and Daitokuji waiting for them on the edge of the beach, and Otogi drawing closer to him. He jerked his head over to the gathering. "Know anything about that?"

"Not a thing." Otogi shrugged and pulled in closer. "Let them have their fun." The gleam in his eyes spelled out clearly that he had fun of his own that he wanted to have, and Fubuki was more than willing to comply.

"Out here?" he teased a little first as Otogi began to kiss the side of his neck quite intimately, his clever hands also caressing across Fubuki's chest. "Isn't it a bit open?"

"Hm. You've got a point there." The djinn moved away and started towards the shore, murmuring, "I'd take us there directly, but there's a few too many curious eyes watching out here."

With the two of them being the two of them, and of one mind currently, before a good ten minutes had passed, they were up in Fubuki's room, the door locked and sealed against anyone intruding on them or even hearing what they were doing. Otogi picked up where he'd left off when they were in the ocean, kissing Fubuki's neck, his lips singing a silent song of praise to all that Fubuki was and all that Fubuki meant to him. Fubuki returned the melody with lyrics of his own, as quiet as what Otogi did, but with a chorus of moans and gasps that punctuated the tune effortlessly.

Afterwards, Fubuki held Otogi in his arms, completely sated and completely at peace. He was edging onto the verge of sleep, but couldn't quite yet let himself slide over. He thought Otogi might already be asleep, which was why he whispered what he did. "The only wish I've got is to never be without you, Otogi Ryuuji." Then he closed his eyes and lost himself in the land of sweet dreams.

Otogi smiled to himself and whispered one word back, with all of his heart, and all of his power in it. This was something he didn't mind doing at all. "Granted."

And then he, too, slept.

**The End**


End file.
